


An Eye For An Eye

by LintheWriter



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha - Freeform, Alpha Deucalion (Teen Wolf), Bad Parenting, Ballroom Dancing, Blind Character, Blind Deucalion (Teen Wolf), Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Dancing, Dates, Deucalion (Teen Wolf) is Not Blind, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Sex, Music, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Nirvana (Band) References, POV First Person, Pre-Alpha Pack, Pre-Hale Fire (Teen Wolf), Pre-Teen Wolf (TV), References to the Beatles, Tango, The Alpha Pack, Werewolf, audiobooks, beta, gerard argent is a bad parent, main character is a writer, semi-good deucalion, the hunters are a weird kind of cult, waltz
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:26:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 70
Words: 85,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25717249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LintheWriter/pseuds/LintheWriter
Summary: After finding out her father blinded the Alpha werewolf known as Deucalion, and murdered her best friend's father, Elizabeth Argent attempts to make peace with Deucalion.This is also on Wattpad.
Relationships: Chris Argent/Victoria Argent, Deucalion (Teen Wolf)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	1. Un

Holding my head in my hands, I closed my eyes. Why couldn’t I just sleep? Tomorrow would be fine, the meeting with Deucalion and his pack was for peace. The other hunters wanted it too, there was no point in any one else dying.

Still, it was worrying me that things could go wrong. Even if my views didn’t exactly align with my father’s, I didn’t want him to get hurt. Even if it was just for Chris and Kate’s sake.

Lying back down, I pulled the covers over me and hoped sleep would take me.

My eyes stung a little as I climbed out of bed. The light was shining through the beige curtains. Groaning, I started to get dressed.

“Where did you say the meeting was happening?” I asked between mouthfuls of food. It was dry but I liked it better than with milk. It made all the cereal soggy and tasteless. Even if I wasn’t lactose intolerant, I still wouldn’t want milk touching the cereal.

“A distillery,” he said.  
“Am I coming in your car or should I drive myself?” Looking over at him, his solemn expression said all. “I’m not going?”  
“No, you’re staying here. Chris isn’t coming either.”  
“Why not?” I put the spoon in the now empty bowl and stared at my dad. “If something goes wrong, I can hit them from a distance.”

He had never let me get close to any werewolves if he could help it, even though I could fight if I needed to.  
“No, you won’t be needed, Liz. I’ve already agreed to bring Adam Lewis,” he said. Dad was taking Adam with him, my best friend’s father. He was, admittedly, a good man to have in case things went wrong so I could see why Dad was taking him. And he had a lot more experience.  
“I’ll stay here then,” I said, partly glad that I wouldn’t have to go.

After taking my empty bowl and spoon to the sink, I headed back upstairs to my room. Looking at the room, I remembered how desperately I had wanted to move out before the back and forth killings between the hunters and Deucalion’s pack. 

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I pulled out my phone. It was too early for Kara to be awake so I had to find something else to do. Spotting a magazine on the bedside table, I reached over to get it. Vogue. It had Angelina Jolie on the front and you weren’t sure how long I'd had it. Seeing as there wasn’t much else to do for an hour until Kara woke up, I flicked through the magazine while lying on my bed. It was dryer than my cereal and I didn’t understand how they dragged out all the articles. I suppose the writers did it the same way I did when I wrote them.

“Liz, Chris, I’m going to meet Deucalion and his pack,” Dad shouted from downstairs. Humming, I closed the magazine and put it back on the bedside table. I grabbed my coat before heading  
“Chris, I’m going to Kara’s, I’ll be back in a bit,” I said as I headed down the stairs. I didn’t hear his reply but assumed he had heard me as I headed out to my car. Dad’s car was already gone.

Pulling up outside of Kara’s house, I checked the time. She would have probably eaten breakfast by now. After locking the car, I headed to the front door of the house and knocked. A few moments later, the door opened and I was greeted by the sigh of Kara.  
“Hey,” I said as I walked in. She shut the door behind her and I took my shoes off by the door and put them on the shoe rack. “How are you doing?”  
“I’m good,” she said. “Little worried for Dad, I guess.”  
“Same,” I admitted with a sigh. “I just hope they manage to make peace.”

Kara just nodded as she made her way to the living room. We both sat on the sofa. It always went like this when our fathers were doing hunting business together.  
“Are we going to listen to music and bake again?” she asked and immediately, I nodded.  
“We can do that, sure,” I said as I watched her stand up.

We headed to the kitchen and Kara turned on the radio.  
“This channel? Really?” I asked as I washed my hands.  
“Yes, they play good music even if the guy has the most irritating voice in existence,” she said with a shrug.  
“Fine,” I muttered. “What are we making today, Miss Kara?” I smiled and she hummed.  
“We made cookies last time, what about cupcakes?”  
“Oo, cupcakes are my favourite,” I said. I could be bribed very easily with cupcakes so it was good that werewolves didn’t just show up with cupcakes, I wouldn’t be able to say no to it.

Kara smiled as she started gathering the ingredients.

In reality, I ended up doing most of the baking since Kara wasn’t used to her new oven yet. But that wasn’t the point, the point was we had both been distracted enough not to sit around and worry over family. Before leaving, I arranged the cupcakes based on the icing flavour. Chocolate at 12 o'clock, strawberry at 3, vanilla at 6 and lemon at 9.

After everything, I ended up driving back with cupcakes on the passenger seat. Holding the cupcakes in my hand, I carefully closed the car door with my hip and awkwardly fumbled for the keys to lock it.

Heading inside, there was a tension in my stomach. Heading into the dining room, I set the cupcakes down and picked one out for Chris, he wasn’t overly fond of sweet things like cakes but he appreciated when I saved one for him.  
“Chris, you in?” I called out as I decided on giving him the one with chocolate icing and sprinkles on top. “Chris?”

Walking back through to the kitchen, I noticed Chris and Dad talking.  
“Is everything alright?” I asked. From the looks of their faces as they both turned to me, I guessed not. Chris left and I handed him the cupcake as he walked past me. He muttered a thanks and I sat down next to Dad. He had a scratch on his face with dried blood around it. “What happened?”  
“It was an ambush, they tricked us. I think I’m the only survivor, Liz,” he said solemnly.  
“Even-”  
“Even Adam Lewis, I called his wife earlier to tell him, we’re going to go back later,” he said. My heart ached as I thought of Kara. We had such a fun time earlier but now…”  
“Did you manage to kill any of them?”  
“A few,” he said, nodding his head. “I blinded Deucalion but he unfortunately got away.”

“I think… I think I should go upstairs,” I said and shakily stood up. It had been a trap to kill the hunters. “Are you alright?”  
“I’ll be fine, I didn’t let those werewolf bastards get me.” I smiled at him before heading upstairs.

Staring up at the ceiling, there was no answer for the second time as I called Kara. She was probably with her mom and I could understand why she wasn’t answering. With a sigh, I stood and headed to the bathroom. Some cold water in my face would help a lot.

As I dried my face off, I heard a voice through the wall.  
“I blinded the bastard. 'I wanted peace' he claimed.” It was your Dad. “Peace? There will never be peace as long as those monsters walk the Earth. I did the right thing, even if it meant losing some of my men.” Curious, I set the down down and headed to the bedroom.  
“Dad?”

He stood by the window, looking out across the street. Had he been talking to himself?  
“Liz, what are you doing? Don't you understand privacy?” he yelled. There was the horrible feeling  
“They didn’t ambush you, did they?”  
“What I did was for the best, Liz,” he said with a fire in his eyes that was mildly terrifying.  
“What about the hunters?”  
“Their losses will not be in vain, Liz,” he said. “We’ll avenge them.” Liz stared at him for a moment. She didn’t believe him but she nodded.  
“Yeah, even if we have to kill all of them,” she lied. He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.  
“I knew you would understand.”

“I’m going to try calling Kara again, she didn’t pick up earlier.” I stepped back and headed back to my room.  
“You know you can’t tell anyone about this, right?” Dad asked. I stopped in the doorway and nodded before carrying on to my room.

My fingers dug into the sheets and I felt tears on my cheeks.

Dad had done something to the other hunters and Kara’s father was dead because of it. He’d said Deucalion asked for peace and in return he had blinded the man.

Something felt wrong.

And not knowing what exactly was wrong was irritating.

Yet again, I stared up at the ceiling, unable to sleep. This time it wasn’t worry that kept me awake, it was something else. Confusion. Dad didn’t let me go with him, had he planned it? He must have known that if I was there, he couldn’t carry out the plan he had.

And that meant he had blinded a werewolf. And from the sounds of it, it was permanent and Deucalion was still alive.

How could he do that and believe it was the right thing? He might have started something worse than what had already been happening.

Closing my eyes, there was the deep ache of betrayal in my chest.

He wasn’t following the code any more. Not like Chris and I did.


	2. Deux

Breakfast felt a little tense as Chris probably didn’t know the truth. I didn’t know the truth but it seemed I knew more than Chris.  
“Did we ever find out where Deucalion lived?” I asked as I looked over at my dad.  
“A penthouse apartment, I think,” said Chris with a shrug. Humming, I put another spoonful of cereal in my mouth and tried to savour the chocolate taste. “Why?”

“You’re not thinking of going after then, are you?” asked Dad. Chris’ eyes widened and I quickly shook my head.  
“No, I was just wondering why we haven’t bothered trying to trap it.”  
“We have,” said Dad. “It didn’t work.”  
“Ah,” I said, humming and finishing my cereal.

I sat at my desk in my room, trying to write something, anything. But nothing happened.

Even though you didn’t know Deucalion, you felt bad for him. It must be horrible to have been blinded, even if he was a werewolf. Dad had said Deucalion had wanted peace and yet, he had blinded him.

Looking over at my phone, I sighed and abandoned writing and dialed Kara’s number. My fingers tapped the wooden desk as I waited for her to answer.  
“Hey,” I said. “How are you feeling?”  
“What do you think?” she asked. Her voice was sort of croaking, she had been crying. “Like shit.”  
“I know, I just…” I sighed. “I’m sorry for your loss, my Dad…” I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth. Besides, I didn’t know what Dad would do if he found out I told her what he had said. “My Dad told me about the ambush and everything, I’m so sorry.”  
“Yeah, I know, I know.” It sounded like she was starting to cry and I didn’t really know how to deal with that. “Look, I’m going to go, I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”  
“Yeah, okay. I’ll-”

The call ended before I could finish my sentence. Sighing, I set the phone down and wished I could help her more. Despite having people around me die, I had never handled death and crying people well.

As I tried to focus on writing, an idea came to my head. What if Deucalion wanted revenge? What if instead of killing the hunters, he’d blind or bite them. The hunter code required the hunters to kill themselves and that was a lot more painful for the family. And blindness would render them unable to hunt at all.

Pushing myself to my feet, I headed to Chris’ room. I knocked on the door and Chris opened it.  
“What is it?” he asked.  
“Out of curiosity, if we managed to have a truce with Deucalion’s pack, would you stick to it?”  
Chris furrowed his brow. “Is this about yesterday?”  
“So what if it is?” I asked with a shrug. “Just… can you answer please?”  
“Fine,” he sighed. “If it meant no more of us dying like yesterday, then yes. A truce might work and I’d stick to it.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “I might go for a walk later, only for an hour or so.”  
“Why are you telling me?” he asked with a roll of his eyes.  
“Just in case,” I said. “We don’t know if any of the pack is trying to target us.”  
“Oh, that’s probably good. Do you want me to come with you or anything?”  
“No, I'll be fine. I just figured I’d tell someone,” I said. Chris just nodded and I smiled at him before heading back to my room.

A quick search revealed that there were only two fancy penthouses in the city and that one was for sale. Which meant Deucalion likely lived in the other one. My eyes lingered on my phone and the half written article and I wondered if there was something to be done about this, to stop it from going any further.

Wearing my black jacket, I headed outside. The wind blew my hair in my face as I walked towards the hill. The pinks and oranges were beautiful as the sun sank below the horizon. The clouds were illuminated a red-orange colour and it was a beautiful spot to just stand and watch the view.

It was a shame this might be the last time I watched the sun set.

My feet carried me to the apartments. Weirdly, the door was open downstairs so I could head inside to the elevator. I stepped into the lift and someone else followed me. They showed their claws as they pulled out a key and pressed the button for the penthouse. They held their hands in front of them, with claws showing. I held onto the railing in the elevator a little too tightly as it started moving upwards.

When the elevator stopped, the doors opened and neither of them moved. Realising I had to go first, I stepped out and nervously walked forward into the open living room.

“What is an Argent doing here?”

Suddenly regretting turning up to an Alpha’s apartment, I glanced behind onto to see the werewolf who had let me come up to the apartment staring at me and blocking the way to the lift. Shakily, I walked forward towards Deucalion. From the look of him, I would have never guessed he was a werewolf with the beige sweater he was wearing.

“I came to apologise.”  
He scoffed. “Apologise? For what Gerard did?”  
Standing tall, I kept my head high despite the fear and regret. “Yes.” Glancing around, all of the pack members were watching me. Some with claws showing.  
“Has he sent you to trick me? Wasn’t the last one enough for me?” he snarled as he walked towards me.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, I… I was thinking about it last night and pretty much all of today.”  
“Thinking?” he repeated. “What on Earth could you be upset about? Your side seems perfectly happy with what’s happening.”  
“My friend’s father was killed. And it’s my father’s fault and he’s lying about it to everyone,” I said honestly. “I don’t like what he’s done and there isn’t much I can do about it.”

“Why should I believe that you don’t agree with what he’s done?” He took a few steps closer and I resisted stepping back and potentially running.  
“You can hear my heartbeat, can’t you? And smell how I’m feeling,” I said. He hummed and walked towards me until we were far too close for my liking. In seconds, he could bite me and my life would be over.

His hand lifted my chin so I was staring into his eyes. There was a red ring around his iris and his pupils were cloudy. It hadn’t healed properly, he truly was blind.  
“This is what your father has done.”  
“I can only apologise,” I whispered, staring at them in fascination. “On behalf of my father and my family, I can only apologise and the only thing I can offer is myself. If you want revenge, take it out on me and not my siblings.”

“Not your father?” His nails dug into my skin and I was fairly sure they were his human nails and not his werewolf claws.  
“He’s still my father, I can’t just let him get hurt,” I said. “But he has done wrong and probably deserves something, at least.”

“Is that all you’ve come here for?” he asked, he sounded almost bored. There was a lump starting to form in my throat.  
“There’s um… maybe a truce, me and my brother will not hurt you if you do not hurt us.”  
“All of you?”  
“Just me and my brother,” I said. Closing my eyes, I swallowed and tried to get rid of the lump. “I can’t expect you not to hurt the rest of my family if they hurt you.”

He hummed and I opened my eyes again to look at him. His eyes reminded me of Dad’s cruelty.  
“If you want to blind me then do it,” I said quietly. “I walked for a reason, I don’t have to get anyone to drive my car back.” There was silence for a tense moment.  
“An eye for an eye and the world goes blind.”  
“What?” I thought he would have more anger, more need for revenge.

“Blinding you would only anger them and I wanted peace,” he said. He let go of my chin but I couldn’t bring myself to look away from his eyes. “Part of me admires your courage, for coming here to apologise for something you had no part in. And the other part wants some revenge.”  
“So… so I won’t be blind.”  
“For now, no,” he said. The way he said it calmly only made it more menacing.

“Well, do you have any other ideas?” I asked quietly. He tilted his head.  
“What do you mean?” he asked.  
“Dad deserves to have some consequences for his actions.” I couldn’t believe I was saying it. “He lied to me and to Chris and to my friend whose father he killed. And to you.”

“It would be a shame if you disappeared for a few days, don’t you think?” he said with a rather terrifying grin. “And only days after what he’s done, it would be a little worrying, perhaps?”  
“I told Chris I’d only be an hour, just in case,” I told him. It seemed I wouldn’t be returning within the hour but not because I had been blinded. “But… I wasn’t expecting to be kidnapped.”  
“Oh no,” he said, shaking his head. “Only if you’re willing. If you stay here for a few days, perhaps I’ll agree to your truce with you and your brother.”

Staring at him, I had to consider my options. If I left, the feud between the hunters and werewolves would continue and Dad wouldn’t deal with any consequences at all. If I stayed, if only for a few days, then there would at least be a truce of some sort. And Dad would have to worry about where I was.

“Three days, I’ll stay for three days,” I said. Three days seemed a reasonable amount of time and if it was horrifically awkward and tense, I would be able to manage for 3 days. “But only if I don’t get hurt.”  
“We’re not barbaric,” he muttered. “But, Elizabeth Argent, it seems we have an agreement. I can’t promise we won’t hurt your father, but we will not hurt you or your brother as long as you don’t hurt us.”

With a wave of his hand, he dismissed his Betas that had been watching us. I’d forgotten about them. Taking a step away from him, I finally looked away from him.  
“I couldn’t promise not hurting my father either, not after what he’s done,” I admitted. Shame filled me, how could I admit to wanting to hurt Dad to Deucalion, of all people?  
“You’re not lying,” he said with a smile on his face. “I might enjoy these three days after all.”


	3. Trois

When the Betas had left, I finally looked around the apartment. It was spacious with a rather large tv and leather sofas and a glass coffee table. The dining table was dark wood, it was probably expensive, and the chairs had fany carvings on the legs and the back. The kitchen area was close to the dining table and there was a breakfast with two chairs tucked under it.

“This place is rather nice, actually,” I said with a small smile. It looked like it cost more than I could ever earn from writing articles and short stories.  
“Not what you were expecting?” he asked as he moved to the sofa.  
“I don’t know what I was expecting.” Him living in a penthouse screamed wealth but I wasn’t expecting it to look so… cozy?  
“To be blinded, perhaps?” Which I was still surprised he didn't want to do. “Are you going to stand there? There's a television you could put to use.”

Biting my lip, I walked over to the sofa and grabbed the remote to turn the TV on. I sat as far away from Deucalion as possible, I still didn't trust him, he was a werewolf. Flicking through the channels, I tried to find something that might be somewhat enjoyable for both of us to watch, or in Deucalion’s case, listen to. Figuring ER might not be Deucalion’s type of show, I ended up watching Frasier. I'd only ended up liking it because of Mom watching it and now I was sort of hooked.

“So where do I sleep?” I spoke quietly, there wasn't any need to be loud and I knew he would be able to hear me anyway.  
“One would assume the guest bedroom,” he said. There was a smile on his face and I almost smiled back. “If you're facing the lift, it's the door on the right.”  
“Thank you,” I said as I stood up. Just before I reached the door, I heard him say something.  
“Goodnight, Elizabeth Argent.” I ignored it and opened the door.

Why was he being so nice? I knew I was his guest but it was hardly conventional. And I was only doing this to make Dad deal with some consequences.

Exploring the room I was in, I discovered it was en suite with its own bathroom. The wardrobe was large and so were the windows. Looking out across the city, I frowned as I realised I couldn't see home from this window. I pulled the curtains across the windows before stripping down and climbing into the double bed.

Weirdly, I slept well. I dressed in yesterday's clothes and decided to leave the room. There was no point hiding in there, I needed to eat and drink and there wasn't much to do in the bedroom.

Heading to the kitchen, I searched for spoons, bowls and cereal in the reverse order. Chocolate cheerios weren't my favourite but they were chocolate so they were okay. I'd poured them into the bowl and had a mouthful to eat as I put the cereal box back.

“Could you do me a favour and pour some into a bowl for me, please?” Deucalion stood a few feet away, leaning against the breakfast bar.  
“Sure, but I'm not going to be your slave for three days,” I said as I grabbed another bowl. “And, I pinned you as a Cornflakes or porridge kind of person, not Chocolate Cheerios.”  
He chuckled as you poured some of the cereal into the bowl. “I suppose I'm not entirely what you expected.”

“I guess not, do you have milk with your cereal?” I asked. I picked up a spoon and waited for an answer.  
“You don’t have milk?”  
“I'm lactose intolerant, can't have most dairy products.” Unless I wanted painful cramps and bloating. Which I did not. It was way more common than a lot of people realised but I was glad he didn't immediately get offended as if I had a choice in it. “So milk or no milk?”  
“Only a little, thank you.”

After shoving another mouthful of cereal into my mouth, I poured a little milk into the bowl and hoped it was roughly the right amount.  
“Do you want a drink while I'm at it?”  
“If that's not too much hassle,” he said. The chair scraping against the floor made me wince as he pulled it out from underneath the breakfast bar to sit down. “Tea would be nice, two sugars and a bit of milk.”  
I stared at him for a moment. “I don’t know how to make tea, I’ve never drunk it before.”

It seemed like he was staring at me for a moment and then he stood up.  
“Then I’ll teach you,” he said. He left the chair out and walked around to stand next to me.  
“What?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.  
“I’ll talk you through it, you can make two cups.” Well, I had nothing better to do.  
“Okay,” I said as I nodded. “What do I do?”

Deucalion talked me through making a cup of tea and it was weirdly enjoyable. I sat next to him at the breakfast bar and nervously sipped at the tea. It was hot and I didn’t know how to feel about it.  
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever used a kettle before today,” I mused before eating more of my cereal. It tasted a little odd, probably because I had just drunk tea.  
He chuckled. “Really?”  
“Yeah, I don’t think anyone in the house drinks tea, we tend to drink coffee.”

“Ah, I hate to disappoint but I don’t drink coffee,” he said before drinking his own tea.  
I gasped. “So I’m not getting coffee for three days? Never mind, that’s it. I have to go home and have my coffee.”  
“A shame, I was curious what your company is like,” he said.  
“What?”  
“You don’t have to stay here, I’m not holding you here against your will. If you want to leave over that, then you’re welcome to,” he said with a smile on his face.  
“I was joking?” It sounded more like a question. He just chuckled and continued to eat his breakfast and drink his tea.

It did mean I could leave at any time though, he truly wasn’t set on keeping me here for the three days if I didn’t want to be here. One I had finished my cereal, I realised something. Pulling my phone out, I discovered it was dead.  
“Great, my phone’s dead, I have no clean clothes and no way to work,” I sighed. I hadn’t thought about that but then again, I hadn’t been expecting to stay.  
“What work do you do?”  
“Freelance stuff, short stories, articles, ghost writing for other people, things like that,” I said, not really sure why he would care.

“Interesting,” he said. “Well, I can send someone to fetch you some clean clothes if you would like.”  
“You’d do that?” I furrowed my brow, why was he offering and being so nice?  
“You’re staying here as a guest, not a prisoner. Though, it might be for the best your phone stays off. I can’t imagine the number of texts and missed calls you’ll have from your family.” Biting my lip, I sighed. It would be harder to ignore Chris and Dad if the phone was turned on.

“Alright then,” I said a little nervously. “The phone can stay off but how are they going to get clothes that fit?”  
“Write down your sizes, I can give it to one of my Betas or something like that. There’s a notepad on the coffee table unless someone’s moved it,” he said with a shrug. He finished his cup of tea and set down the empty cup. Looking down at the cup, there was only a little bit of tea left. I drank it all before standing up to get the notebook. Thankfully, there was a pen next to it so I didn’t have to worry about finding a pen.

Sitting back down at the breakfast bar, I moved the cup and bowl out of the way and took the lid off the pen.  
“Did you like the tea then?” he asked.  
“Well, I drank it all,” I said as I opened the notebook. One of the pages had writing on it but the writing wasn’t on the lines at all. Was this Deucalion’s writing? Glancing at him, I then turned the page and found a blank one.  
“That doesn’t mean you liked it,” he said as he turned his head towards me.  
“It was… okay. I think I still prefer coffee at the moment though.” I started listing items of clothing and my size in them.

As if it was planned, which it might have been for all I knew, one of Deucalion’s Betas stepped out of the lift.  
“Ah, just at the right time,” said Deucalion with a smile. “Could you do me a favour, Becca, and use this list to buy my guest a few sets of clothes?”  
“I suppose,” she said as she glared at me. It seemed that, understandably, not all of them wanted me to be here. “I have something to talk to you about.”  
“I’m sure we can do that when you return,” he said. His words made it sound like a suggestion but the tone of his voice implied something else.

Awkwardly watching them, I felt a little fearful. If Deucalion wanted, he could easily bite me and eliminate another Argent. And while it didn’t seem like he was going to do that, there was always the chance he would.

I still didn’t understand why he had suggested this at all. I suppose it would irritate my dad but so would have kidnapping or blinding me, why was he choosing to be nice? I didn’t understand him.


	4. Quatre

Now in nice, new and clean clothes, I headed out of the bedroom and found Deucalion sitting on the sofa again. It seemed his talk with the Beta didn’t take too long. Thankfully, the Beta, Becca, had also gotten underwear and pajamas which I was thankful for. I was mildly worried they’d just be ignored.  
“Um, when I leave at the end of this,” I started as I walked over to him, “how do I explain this?”  
“I'm not sure.”

“Sorry, Chris, I know I said I'd be back in an hour but I was actually planning on letting Deucalion and his pack take revenge on me for what Dad's done but you don't actually know what he's done so to annoy him I stayed for a few days?” I hummed and shook my head. “Somehow I don't think that's going to be the explanation I use.”  
“It might not be the best one, no,” he said, laughing a little. “You'll have to think of another reason to have disappeared for 3 days.”

“Me? You suggested this… thing.” I sat down on the sofa next to him.  
“You agreed to it.” Sighing, I had to relent. I did agree to whatever this was so I supposed I had to at least partly be responsible for whatever explanation I would give Dad and Chris.  
“I suppose I did, yeah,” I said.

“Are…” I trailed off. My curiosity could come off as rude and the last person I wanted to offend was Deucalion.  
“Are… what?” he asked.  
“It doesn’t matter,” I said dismissively, shaking my head.  
“Well, now I’m intrigued, what is it?”

“Are you always blind? Even when you shift?” I asked, watching him with curiosity. His eyes glowed red and he reached out and gently took my hand. His hand was warm and I stared at him. “You can see me, can’t you?”  
“Yes, though I can’t make out much in the peripherals and it’s all various shades of red.”

“You’re partially sighted when you shift, like Kara,” you murmured. “Except Kara isn’t a werewolf.  
“Kara?”  
“My friend, she has sort of not peripheral vision too. She’s losing it but I don’t know what she has,” I told him. “She uses the clock method to eat and the little pinky trick when she pours herself a drink.”  
“I have never heard of that before,” he admitted. His glowing eyes faded and his normal eyes blankly stared ahead. Looking down at his hand, an overwhelming sadness flooded my chest.

“My Dad, he… he called you a visionary man. He was mocking you, I think,” I said quietly. “So far, you have been kinder to me than some of my family. All of the hunter training, I hated it. As much as I want to fight close combat sometimes, I can’t.”  
“You’re their sniper, aren’t you? I only saw you once or twice,” he said.  
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “But, looking back, I just…”

Why was I even telling him this?

“Why am I telling you this?”  
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head slightly. “While I can smell your emotions, I can’t read your thoughts.”  
“I don’t know why I’m telling you,” I said honestly. All of my life I had been told he was the enemy and yet here he was, treating me nicely and buying me clothes to irritate my father. “But I’m going to tell you anyway. The first thing they do when you’re being trained as a hunter is they tie you to a chair and time how long it takes you to get out.”  
“That’s…” he trailed off, it seemed like he didn’t know what to say.

“It took me over three hours. My Dad was so disappointed in me, told me he expected better from an Argent. It was forgotten for a few years until Chris managed to get out by breaking the chair and did it in seconds.” He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. “I felt horrible. Even Kara had managed to do better than me and it only carried on like that. That Chris was better and then both Chris and Kate were better. I’m more useful than when I’m not there by the sounds of it.”

“It sounds more like Gerard keeps you away from his executions when he says that.”  
“Executions?” I asked, furrowing my brow.  
“When he catches a werewolf, do you know what he does to them?” he asked. His voice was lower and part of me felt a little spark of terror.  
“No, I don’t, I’ve never known the details.”  
“He hangs them by their wrists, rips out their claws and cuts them in half with a broadsword,” I’ve lost a few members of my pack to this over the years.” He spoke quietly and it was hard not to believe him.  
“I…”

Part of me felt like I was choking as images of various werewolves were hung from trees by their wrists followed by Dad cutting them in half at the waist with a sword. Blood sprayed across bark and fallen leaves as the bottom half of their body drops to the ground and the upper half is just left to hang there.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” he asked softly. I shook my head, not quite managing to form words.  
“No, I can’t bring myself to,” I said, forcing the words out since he couldn’t see me shaking my head. “Even when I was left to, I couldn’t do it. I never asked to be a hunter, my parents decided I was going to be one.”  
“You know what hunters do now,” he said.  
“It’s barbaric.”

Thinking back to Uncle Alexander, I could remember being told he ended his own life until you were trained to be a hunter. Then it was because he had been bitten. The Code meant he had to kill himself and because of that, I never got to meet him.  
“I need some time to myself.” Letting go on his hand, I stood up and headed back to the bedroom, the only place I could think of to get some privacy. Deucalion said nothing.

Shutting the bedroom door behind me, I stared at the lavish room. I wanted to scream, this was all too much. I hadn’t been fond of the hunter lifestyle but I couldn’t just leave, that wasn’t really possible with Dad.

Even so, I couldn’t deny the dislike I’d harboured and let fester until now. Maybe Dad’s trap for Deucalion was just the thing that pushed me over the edge. Or maybe the new information about Dad cutting people in half with a broadsword was what had done it.

The only good thing about hunting had been Kara. I only knew her because my dad and her dad were both hunters. Otherwise we would have never known each other.

Sliding down the door, I ended up sitting on the floor with my head in my hands.

It was medieval. Barbaric. Barbaric was the only word I could think of to describe it.

I wasn’t sure how long I had sat there for but a knock on the door made me flinch.  
“I’m cooking, is there anything you want in particular and would you like to help?” He spoke softly. Figuring I couldn’t hide in here and debate my conflict over being a hunter, I stood and wiped my eyes before opening the door.  
“Yeah, I’ll help you.”


	5. Cinq

The food was set out on the plate using the clock method. He was sitting at the head of the dining table and looked sort of regal with how he sat. He had told me to sit on his right so I set my plate down in front of the seat on his right.

“Okay,” I said, realising I’d have to explain it to him as I sat his plate down. “Okay, so, the plate is like a clock. 6 is closest to you, 12 is furthest away from you. Meat is always at 6 because it’s easier to cut it when you don’t have to reach over other foods to cut it.”

Deucalion hummed in acknowledgement and tapped. “Where is everything else on the plate?”  
“Roasted broccoli, which is disgusting, by the way, is at about 2 o’clock and the mash is from about 9 to 11.” I sat down and placed my own knife and fork either side of the plate. It was a habit from eating with Kara that I also used the clock method. It was also a lot easier to pick out what I wanted to eat. My plate had a distinctive lack of broccoli.  
“Alright,” said Deucalion as he nodded.

“Are you left or right handed?” I asked.  
“Right handed,” he said. I reached over to place the fork on the left side of the plate and the knife on the right side.  
“Fork is at 9 and the knife is at three. The glass for water is between 1 and 2, all of them off of the plate, of course,” I explained as I picked up my fork. “The glass has water in it but I filled the jug with water so if you need to refill it I can teach you the pinky trick with it.” I smiled and he tilted his head slightly.

“I feel there’s an irony in eating a French dish called hunter’s chicken,” he said as he picked up the knife and fork.  
Smiling a little wider. “I know,” I said before cutting a piece of the chicken off. “To figure out how big the piece you’re going to eat is, you judge by the weight. You can use the knife to help judge the size of things to and to push food onto the fork.”

He nodded and started eating and every so often, I couldn’t help but get distracted by him. He was oddly graceful and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was more confident with little things like this before he was blinded.

“So, how do I refill the glass?” he asked. Looking over, the glass was empty.  
“Okay, get the jug and put the spout bit to the rim of the glass, you should be able to feel it,” I instructed and Deucalion followed what I had said. Smiling, I then said: “Now put your pinky on the other hand over the rim and sort of in the glass and pour the water until you can feel it with your pinky.”  
He did so and then set the half-filled jug of water back down on the table. “Done?”  
“Yeah, you did it,” I said with a smile.

“You know, I can tell you’re smiling,” he said.  
“How?” I asked, furrowing my brow as I finished eating.  
“I just can.” But his eyes weren’t glowing red so he hadn’t shifted to use his vision.  
“You know, I don’t understand you sometimes,” I mumbled, mirroring what he had said. He chuckled as he set his knife and fork down on the plate.

“I’ll put the plates in the dishwasher,” I said. I didn’t have much else to do. “Besides, I’m the last person to finish eating.”  
“If you want to,” he said but he stayed seated at the table.  
“You can go and do other things, you know.”  
“Like what?” he asked, turning to look in my general direction. Shrugging, I put some mashed potato in my mouth.

“Audiobooks?” I suggested once I had finished eating the mouthful of food.  
“I don’t have any.”  
“Shit, yeah, I only have them because of Kara,” I muttered. Humming, I tried to think of something else. “I mean, other than tv, I’m not really sure. I usually bake with Kara, even if I do most of the baking, we just tend to sing and dance to whatever is on the radio. Sometimes we go for a walk or something.”

“Do you spend a lot of time with her?”  
“A fair bit, yeah. We grew up together, pretty much,” I said. Frowning a little, I wouldn't be able to call Kara and make sure she was okay. She must be so worried about me.  
“You said you wrote short stories,” he said. I was almost certain there was a point to him bringing it up but I wasn’t sure what. “Perhaps if you write one, I could listen to it.”  
I had to try to not spit out my food in shock. “Um… I don’t know?”  
“You don’t have to,” he said. “I’m just curious.”

I took a deep breath and set the knife and fork down on the now empty plate and figured there wasn’t much else to do. “Well, I don’t have any of them on me but if you give me a notebook and a few hours I might have something to read to you?” The last few days just seemed to be getting stranger and more ridiculous as they went on. A week ago, I wouldn’t have even dreamed of it.  
“I’ll get you a notebook and a pen while you put these in the dishwasher then,” he said as he stood. He tucked the chair underneath the table. For a few moments more, I stayed seated at the table.

This was really happening.

I gathered the plates and cutlery and cups and carried them to the dishwasher. After shutting the dishwasher, I realised Deucalion had disappeared into one of the other rooms. I headed over to the sofa and a door opened as I sat down. Deucalion left the room with a notebook and pen in one hand and he shut the door behind him with the other. Squinting, I recognised the logo on the notebook.

“Is that a Moleskine notebook? Those are expensive for notebooks,” I said. He smiled as he made his way to the sofa.  
“Well, I’m not going to have much use for them at the moment and you might,” he said as he held them out. I thanked him as I took them from his hand. Eyes wide, I stared at the pen.  
“This is an expensive pen too,” I said as I took the cap off it. It was also a fountain pen. “I’m a little scared I’ll break it.”  
“You’ll be fine,” he said.

Deucalion walked over to the tv stand. There were CDs underneath and his fingers ran along the edges before pulling one out. He opened it and headed over to a hi-fi system I felt a little stupid for not noticing. It was next to a door which looked like it led outside.  
“Do you have a balcony?” I asked, watching as he turned the system on and put the CD in.  
“It’s a penthouse apartment, of course I have a balcony,” he said.

After a few seconds, the music started playing and I laughed a little at his choice in music.  
“Ah, it is the right CD,” he said as he walked back to the sofa.  
“The right CD?” I repeated.  
“They’re organised, I know the order of them,” he said as he said down.  
“I would not have pinned you as a Beatles fan,” I said.

The notebook had nothing in it, it was completely blank. No ripped out pages either. Deciding not to complain, I put pen to paper and tried to jot down any ideas for short stories I’d be willing to read out loud to Deucalion, of all people. Which was still ridiculous.

“I wouldn’t have pinned you as a Nirvana fan,” he said and I immediately stopped writing to look at him.  
“That’s the shirt I was wearing yesterday,” I said.  
“And earlier,” he said with a grin on his face.  
“You shifted just to look at my shirt?” That sounded stupid and I immediately regretted saying it as it was almost certainly not what had happened.

“I shifted to look at you yesterday,” he clarified and I bit my lip. “I’ve never really been close enough to you to get a good scent but I’d seen you enough to recognise you. I had to know who I was dealing with.”  
“Right…” I said quietly. I hadn’t even noticed the shift, I had been looking at his eyes a lot of the time and they glowed red when he shifted. He must have done it before we had been far too close together. We really had been rather close together…

“I’ll let you write in peace then,” he said as he closed his eyes and relaxed. Turning back to the lined pages of the notebook, I smiled to myself as I had an idea.

Occasionally, I could hear him murmur lyrics to songs as I wrote. He changed the CD twice and I smiled to myself as I listened to him. It was more relaxing that I had expected and I had managed to write more in a few hours than I had done over the last few weeks. The Argent family fortune really helped out sometimes.

“Okay,” I said as the third CD finished and Deucalion took it out of the hi-fi system. “I think I’ve written enough to read to you for a while, if you want?” He nodded as he put the CD back in its case.  
“That would be nice,” he said while walking back to the tv stand to put the CD back in its place amongst the organised CDs. It was impressive he knew the order, I’d never manage it. I flicked through the pages and back to the beginning of my writing.

“So… tell me when to start reading, I guess? I’ve only ever really read to Kara before, for oddly similar reasons.” Deucalion and Kara seemed to have a lot in common. When he sat down, he sat closer to me than before.  
“Go on then.”

Nervous at first, I started reading what I read out loud, scrambling to fix spelling mistakes and missing words or phrases as I noticed them and trying not to disturb the flow of my reading.

Once I finished reading, I waited for a few moments before looking up from my handwriting which was barely legible, even to me and I wrote it. Swallowing, I closed the notebook and put the elastic around it to keep it shut.  
“What did you think?”  
“Beautiful,” he said quietly. “You’re rather good at it.”  
“Thank you,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat up.

“Did you have a favourite bit?” I asked as I held the notebook maybe a little too tightly but knowing what people thought of my writing was always nerve-wracking. If they hated it then it was tense and awkward and if they loved it, I still felt awkward because not many people actually read my writing, let alone liked it.  
“The waterfall, your description was so vivid,” Deucalion said. “They all are, it’s brilliant.”  
“Would it surprise you to know Kara’s the reason for that too?” I said with an awkward chuckle. “She said it was like she was there, I figured she was just being nice.”  
“No, I have to agree with her.”

I smiled and thanked him again and he smiled back. Did he really know when I was smiling? How could he hear it?  
“I should probably go to sleep, I have no idea what time it is and I don’t know how well I’ll be sleeping,” I said. Hopefully it would be like the night before, dreamless and for at least nine hours. “So um, goodnight, I guess?” It felt rude not saying goodnight after reading to him.  
“Goodnight, Liz.”

For the first time ever, I froze up as I heard the nickname. Only Dad called me that. And almost immediately, Deucalion apologised.  
“You don’t like that, I’m sorry.”  
“It’s what my Dad calls me and I'm currently confused about him,” I said, that was the only reason for it I could think of. “But… Liza is fine.”  
“I’m sorry,” he said again. It was like he could smell the change in feelings which he likely could. “Goodnight, Liza, I hope you sleep well.”  
“Goodnight, Deucalion.”

I turned and hurried over to my room with the book and pen still clutched tightly in my fingers. I set it down on the bedside table before changing into the pajamas and lying on the bed.

I had just said goodnight to an Alpha werewolf and an Alpha werewolf had just used the same nickname as my dad so he apologised and I suggested a different nickname which he then used and this was just getting more bizarre than my brain could handle.


	6. Six

“I hate you,” I said as Deucalion sat down next to me at the breakfast bar. After stuffing a spoonful of cereal into my mouth, I carried on writing. My hair was still a little damp from the bath I had before getting dressed.  
“Is that so?”  
“Yeah,” I said. “I have the Beatles stuck in my head and it's not fair.” He chuckled and I frowned. “It's not funny! I have two lines of a damn Beatles song in my head and I don't even know which one it is!”  
“It is a little bit funny.”  
Sighing, I turned to him and smiled. “I guess it is, a little bit,” I admitted. “It's still not fair though.”

We carried on eating and I continued writing while chewing Chocolate Cheerios.  
“Is that the same as yesterday?” he asked. He had finished his breakfast already and I had started eating before him. Then again, I was a little distracted with what I was writing.  
“Yeah, I've carried it on,” I replied. “I could maybe read it to you later, if you'd like?”  
He nodded. “I would like that.” I had enjoyed reading to him. It reminded me that I'd enjoyed reading to people in general but most people didn't care enough to sit down and listen.  
“Okay then,” I said with a smile on my face. I nodded to myself.

Once I finished eating, Deucalion took the bowl from me before I could say anything.  
“What are you doing?” I asked, furrowing my brow.  
“Putting them in the dishwasher, you took the plates last time and I can’t keep expecting my guest to clean up after me,” he said. He struggled for a moment but then his hand gripped the dishwasher door and pulled it open. “Carry on writing, Liza. I’ll be fine.”

I watched him for a few seconds before looking back at the writing. I could barely read what I had just written and I tried to carry on after adding in a missing ‘the’. He moved around in the background as I carried on writing.

A door slammed shut and I turned around to see Deucalion standing on the other side of the window. The balcony. Every so often, I glanced over. He was leaning against the railing. I kept trying to focus on my writing but my eyes always drifted back over to him. Figuring I might as well go out and talk to him inside of creepily watching him every so often, I stood and headed outside.

The wind blew my hair in my face and it was a bit cold and I saw no point in getting a coat. Looking out, I could see parts of Beacon Hills from somewhere I had never seen it before. It was close to where I watched the sunset before I came here. With the way it was facing, it would be the best place to watch the sunrise.

“How’s your writing going?”  
“I was getting a little distracted,” I admitted. My cheeks heated up despite the temperature.  
“By what?”  
“You,” I said honestly. “Standing out here. I’m a little curious what you’re doing out here.” I leant against the railing with my arms crossed.  
“I don’t have much to do, at the moment,” he said. “Besides, it’s refreshing out here. I can feel the wind and smell… pollution. Someone’s cooking something that smells quite nice.”

Chuckling, I moved along the railing and a little closer to him. “Can you tell what they’re cooking?” I was curious and wouldn’t be surprised if he answered.  
“Tacos, I think.”  
I hummed, tacos were delicious. “I kind of want to eat Tacos now.” He just smiled.

With eyes glowing red, he looked out across part of Beacon Hills. Moving a little closer, I smiled.  
“It’s really beautiful up here.” I could imagine the sunrises with all their colours and cloudless summer days with a warm breeze. Part of me felt guilty that I could see it all and he couldn’t. “I’m still sorry.”  
“Don’t apologise for your father, Liza,” he said, somewhat coldly. “I’ll admit, I thought he had sent you as another trick but you have proven that you are more than a pawn in whatever game he plays.”

“I really… It’s just that, if he can lie about something that big and have no qualms with it…”  
“You don’t know what else he’s lying about,” Deucalion finished for me.  
I nodded. “Yeah. He could have lied about Uncle Alexander, and they did lie until I started hunter training, and there’s all of the other things. Chris and I came with him here to do this and then he refused to let either of us help. What happened the other times he didn’t go with him for whatever reason?” I was rambling, I knew I was rambling. I leaned over the rails a little as I took a deep breath. Someone in a red car was pulling into an empty space.

“You said you didn’t like the hunter training,” he said.  
“I hated it,” I said, remembering that I had told him I hated it. It had been tough, unwanted and humiliating.  
“Then why do it?”

Was he trying to convince me to stop being a hunter?

“I don’t know,” I said truthfully. I didn’t know why I carried on. Because it was expected of me? Because I’d be ridiculed if I didn’t? Or, at worst, disowned? “I don’t know why I do it, maybe it’s just because that’s what’s been expected of me all of my life, even when I didn’t know it.”  
“I’ve found that while living up to other people’s expectations, those other people tend to stamp out everything you love.”

His words just seemed to hit me like a brick of realisation. And it was equally as painful.

Whenever I was around Dad, I could never write. Not once had I heard any praise from him for my writing, he just considered it a useless way of spending time I could be spending training. Training to be better like Chris or better like Kate. I’d spent the last few weeks with Dad and Chris preparing for things and my writing had just faded away. And now, in an Alpha werewolf’s penthouse, I was writing more than I had in the last month.

His hand rested on my elbow and I stared at it.

“I don’t have a choice in being a hunter. I’ll probably get disowned or something,” I said. I had never heard of an Argent who wasn’t a hunter. “My writing doesn’t exactly make me money and I’m not very good at keeping to a job.” The repetitiveness just sucked away all of the imagination and creativity and replaced it with exhaustion and a general feeling of nothingness.

“I’m sure you’d find a way to make things work, should you have to,” he said. “You are rather intelligent.”  
“How would you know?”  
“I thought I knew a lot and yet you have taught me new things I never knew existed.” The clock method and the pinky trick, I assumed. “You should give yourself more credit.”

Shaking my head, I looked across Beacon Hills again. It felt a little colder out here.  
“I couldn’t, getting disowned means Chris would probably not be allowed to talk to me. Or Kara, she was meant to be a hunter until she started losing her sight. She started training too and then it got worse.” I missed her. Normally, we would be talking over the phone right now. “I miss talking to her.”

“You can leave now if you’d like. I’ll still hold to the truce whether you leave now, tonight or tomorrow.”  
“No, I said three days and I’m keeping to it,” I said. And going back on what I said might make it seem like I’d go back on other things. “Besides, this isn’t anything like what I expected. It’s… nice, actually.”  
“No, you expected me to be vengeful and blind you but…”  
“But you didn’t,” I said, shaking my head.

“I’m still vengeful, I think. Still angry,” he said. “But towards you? You knew nothing and still felt like you had to apologise. I mean, if I wanted I could throw you from the balcony and claim you were my girlfriend with a history of depression and suicidal tendencies.”  
“Great,” I muttered.  
He must have sensed the panic as he quickly said: “I wouldn’t do that, I like you too much. You’re good company and… and there would be no point in killing you, Liza. I don’t really need to incite anger, there already is anger. Your father hates us, it doesn’t matter what we do.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it? I don’t think he’ll stop. Everyone else wanted peace. Me, Kara, her father. You are your werewolves. And then he goes and… and does that,” I said. Hesitantly, I place my hand over his. “I really don’t know how much he’s lied to me over the years. How many people have they killed with false proof or with no proof at all? I don’t think I can do this any more.”  
“Then don’t.”  
“But it’s not that simple,” was my immediate response. “I really wish it was that simple.”  
“I think it’s more simple that you’ve been told.”


	7. Sept

We had stood outside for a while, saying nothing to each other. Eventually, I moved and headed inside to warm up, I only had a short sleeve shirt on and outside at the top of an apartment block turned out to be fairly cold.

The notebook rested on the arm of the sofa as I wrote. Hopefully, I didn’t get any ink on it. I managed to write a few pages before I was distracted by Deucalion walking in.  
“You know, when you offered for me to blind you, I wanted to,” he said as he walked over. “I wanted someone else to suffer like I had.” That was the vindictive nature I had been expecting.  
“Right…” I said quietly, staring at him and waiting for him to say something else.  
“And then, I looked at you. You had your eyes closed and I could smell the fear on you. And I could tell you really did just want peace and no more deaths.” He stood in front of me, towering over me and for a moment, I had no idea what he was going to do.

“The Beta that was killed, that started all of this, was not one of mine. He was one of Ennis’, he was shot in the throat with an arrow, had his claws ripped out and then was cut in half,” he said and I closed my eyes. It sounded horrific and I winced at how painful it must have been. “They tried to convince me peace wouldn’t work and they were right, it didn’t. But I looked at you, for only a moment, and you offered peace or revenge.”  
“And you chose peace?” I whispered. He nodded.

“Yes. There was no point starting a feud with you or your brother,” he said. “I am, admittedly, resentful, though I might not seem it. But not against you. I realised that you had nothing to do with it, associated by name only as I had been associated with Ennis' Beta by being a werewolf.”  
Lifting the pen off of the paper, I realised how tightly it was gripped in my hand. I couldn’t do anything with it but I still held it anyway. “Deucalion…”

He took a sharp breath in. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. What I’m trying to say is that I just realised I couldn’t do it when I shifted to look at you. It would have been futile,” he said. “And I would never have talked to you. You’re not a hunter, or a killer. You’re rather unorthodox and I was intrigued.”

“Hence the staying here suggestion?”  
“Yes,” he said. “And you agreed to it.” My death grip on the pen loosened.  
“I just wanted to get back at Dad for what he did,” I said honestly. I balanced the pen between the open pages of the notebook. “I hated that he had no consequences, I thought that if I just disappeared for a few days like Kate did, he’d maybe get worried about me. And I don’t know if he’ll actually care. And maybe I wanted to know if you were savage beasts, if you were just ruthless killers that deserve to die.”

“And?” he prompted.  
“And now I’m just confused.” Tears were welling in my eyes. As much as I didn’t want to be a hunter, I didn’t want to leave Chris and Kara.  
“That makes two of us.” Slowly, I stood and moved away from him.  
“I can't tell if you're being honest with me or if you're trying to persuade me out of being a hunter. I don't know what I want anymore,” I said, stumbling backwards. “I don't even know you! And here I am, telling you about my life.”  
“I'll admit that one less hunter would be nice,” he said as he started to walk towards her. “But I can sense how unhappy you are, pretending to be a tough hunter. I can hear the happiness in your voice when you read.”

“I don't know.”

“I'm not here to tell you what to do,” he said as he stood far too close to me. This was insane. All of this was insane. “But you're kind and sweet, Liza, and willing to take the blame but you're unhappy, you don't realise it but the chemosignals tell the truth.”  
“Are you trying to tell me that I'm depressed?”  
“No, I just think that perhaps you deserve something better.” He reached out and took my hand and just held it. Thankfully, the screaming was internal. Though, he must have sensed something as he squeezed my hand.

“I don't know,” I said, shaking my head. “I don't know, I don't know, I don't know!” Letting out a scream of frustration, I yanked my hand free of his and fled to the guest bedroom.

Sitting with my back against the door again, the tears feel more freely. I didn't want to have to choose between hunting and my family with being happier and writing.

Why couldn't I just stay in this apartment?

Deucalion had been nothing but kind, if a little persistent on me not being a hunter. But it genuinely seemed like he was being persistent because I wasn't happy.

And part of me didn't want to admit that yet. Hunting made me feel like a murderer despite never killing anyone myself.

Sighing, I climbed onto the bed and curled up. I'd never lied on a bed so soft. The sheets and covers still smelt fresh and were inviting me to sleep. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath.

How long could I ignore what I knew?

Even Deucalion knew how I felt and he had only known me for two days. He probably knew how I was feeling better than I did simply because of chemosignals. I couldn't tell if I hated it or not.

Still, I hadn’t come here to have a mid-life crisis while not being middle aged, I had come to make up for my Dad’s mistakes.

Which I now felt was probably the worst thing I could have done.

There were knocks on the door and I turned my head and sat up. Had I fallen asleep?

“What do you think of Mexican for dinner?”

Dinner? I had to have fallen asleep then.

Though, Mexican sounded nice. Especially since the mention of tacos earlier. Climbing out of bed, I ran my fingers through my hair before pulling open the door.

“Mexican sounds wonderful,” I said.

He smiled slightly. “Then I shall order some, I don’t fancy cooking today.”

“Right.”

Leaning against the doorway, Deucalion’s eyes looked in my direction for a moment but it was odd knowing he couldn’t see me.  
“You left your notebook and pen on the arm of the sofa,” he said.  
“They’re not really mine,” I replied. The notebook and pen were his. Even the clothes I was wearing didn’t feel like they were mine, they were bought with his money.  
“The notebook may as well be, I have no use for it and you’ve already started writing in it.”

“And the pen?”  
“I rather like the pen, it’s nice to write with, I may still need that.” I chuckled at him and stepped forwards, pulling the door partly closed as I did so.  
“I don’t know how I’d explain going back with a fancy notebook, I didn’t exactly bring much money with me,” I said with a sigh. I’d probably have to leave it here when I went back home. It would look weird returning with it. Though, this whole situation was rather weird in general.

“Have you thought of what you’d tell them?” he asked as he headed back towards the kitchen  
I shook my head. “No, I have no idea.” He had a smirk on his face. “Do you have an idea, Deucalion?”  
“Imagine: you’ve been meeting someone for months, didn’t want to bring him home because of awkward family dinners. And after a freak accident a few days ago where he was blinded at work, you went for a walk to meet up with him and got a little… sidetracked and perhaps a bit distracted.”

Laughing, I moved my hair out of my face. I hadn’t tied it back after the bath this morning. “I think Dad would kill me if I told him that. Imagine that though. ‘What sort of distractions could cause you to be away for three days without telling anyone?’ he would ask, really angrily over the dining table and Chris would just awkwardly stand in the corner. And I’d tell him that it’s the sort of distraction that proves to a man he’s still loved and the kind you don’t tell your family about.”

This idea of secretly meeting up with Deucalion was ridiculous but sort of plausible. I had kept partners secret before. Dad would expect me to know what Deucalion looked like though, and perhaps that made it funnier. At least, funnier to me. And Argent sneaking off to secretly date an Alpha werewolf.

“No, I can’t say that to them,” I said, still laughing a little. “Even if it would be amusing.”  
“No, perhaps not the best excuse.” He chuckled. “I’ll admit, I’d like to watch those conversations play out. Gerard is not a kind man, and I’d be more worried about you.”  
“Worried about me?” I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean?”  
“What would they do if you told them that? Or even if you told them the truth, what would happen?”

Stopping, I thought about it. He had stopped slowly walking towards the sofa. I didn’t like the ideas my brain came up with.  
“Liza?”  
“He’d watch me like a hawk,” I whispered. “I’m not that far off being thirty and yet I’d be treated like a child. I am treated like a child. He thinks I don’t understand why there are hunters. I don’t think I’d get an ounce of freedom again.”

“I don’t think your father is a good man,” said Deucalion. “Or a good father.”  
“You’re not going to think that because he blinded you,” I said, without thinking. “And I… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be defending him. He’s not a good man really.”

Everything just made me want to scream, to close my eyes and run away from all of this.

“I can’t do it, I can’t be a hunter. I don’t know what I have to do to get away from my family and stop but I have to. I can’t deal with this any more.”


	8. Huit

Knowing something was one thing, saying out loud was another. As soon as the words left my mouth, it was like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. And a different weight came crashing down on me.

How did I leave being a hunter behind without running away and never talking to them again?

“Liza, I think you should sit down.” He had his hand on my shoulder and I was trembling. “I’ll order food for us.”  
Nodding, I started walking towards the sofa to sit down. “Yes, probably for the best.”

As he had said, the notebook was still open and the pen balanced in the middle. Except the lid of the pen had been put on and I didn’t remember doing that. Deucalion must have done it. Picking up the pen, I took the cap off and put it on the back of the pen before turning to the back of the notebook.

Frantically scribbling, I tried to write down everything I was thinking. If I wanted to distance myself I’d need to get a haircut, a new phone, possibly even a new car. I’d have to dress differently and differently for me probably meant not walking around in skinny jeans and Nirvana shirts. Maybe I could wear dresses, I hadn’t worn dresses in years and people wouldn’t be used to it. Maybe wearing jewellery again would be an idea, Dad wasn’t too fond of it for whatever reason.

“You’re writing quite fast,” he remarked as he sat next to me. He must have already ordered take-out.  
“I’m trying to write down what I’m thinking, sometimes it helps me organise what I’m thinking,” I said as I carried on scrawling down whatever was in my head.  
“And, may I ask, what are you thinking?”  
“That I’m going to have to do a lot of things at once to leave all of this.” Closing my eyes, I realised I likely wouldn’t be able to talk to Kara ever again. ”I won’t be able to talk to Chris or Kara. Argents don’t just stop being hunters. I can’t name an Argent who isn’t a hunter. Even all the dead ones I know of were all hunters.”

“Maybe your family doesn’t like mentioning it,” said Deucalion with a slight shrug. “In case more Argents decide they’d rather do something else.”  
“Maybe,” I said. I looked down at my writing and yet again, I could barely make out parts of it. It was worse than usual since I had written it all down so far. “I think I just need to stop thinking for a moment.”

After putting the cap on the pen, I shut the notebook and set them both down on the coffee table.  
“I just wish there’s a way to stop without losing my only friend and my brother,” I said as I leaned back. “I mean, I might be able to talk to Chris but Kara? She thinks you’ve killed her dad and you haven't. She's not family like Chris is either. And all of this…”  
“Stop thinking about it for a while then,” he said.  
“And do what?” I turned to look at him.  
“Relax for a while, your father isn’t here.”  
Chuckling, I smiled. “I’m glad he isn’t.” For a second, I looked away from him. “I like talking to you. In the weirdest way possible, it’s nice that you don’t care about what I want to do with my life.”  
He smiled. “I’m glad. I’ve enjoyed talking to you more than I expected,” he said. “I was expecting more arguments, more fighting.”

“I don’t see the point, I’d lose anyway,” I said. I didn’t have to be clever to know that Alpha’s shouldn’t be messed with, especially alone and especially if they were angry.  
He chuckled. “What makes you think that? I’m blind.”  
“You’re an Alpha and you have other senses,” I pointed out. He could literally smell how I was feeling at any point in time. “And I’m not a great fighter anyway, it’s why I snipe people from a distance. Dad didn’t want me getting hurt.”

“I thought the Argents were a matriarchal family.”  
“Dad would disagree,” I said with a sigh. “If he cared, I would have been in charge of the meeting with you. And you wouldn’t be blind and Kara’s dad wouldn’t be dead.”  
“You father likes ignoring your traditions then?” he asked with a smirk on his lips.  
“I guess so but I can’t say much, can I? I’m abandoning them completely. One less hunter for you to deal with, not that you really had to deal with me anyway.”

It was quiet for a moment and something stuck in my head. He knew that I was unhappy even when I didn’t know myself.  
“Am I really that unhappy?” I asked.  
“You seem it,” he said. “When you talk about hunting and your father, it never seems good.” Humming, I thought about it in my mind. I never liked it but it was just something I had to do, I suppose.

“And you said I was happy reading?”  
“Happier, at least. I didn’t need chemosignals to tell me that, though,” he said, smiling a little. “You enjoy it, don’t you?”  
“Yeah, I do,” I said, smiling at him. “I’m not sure why but I do.”  
“I don’t think it matters why,” he said. He then added: “And you’re smiling again.”

Gasping, I tried to form words. His eyes weren’t glowing so he hadn’t shifted. “How are you doing that?” It was a little odd that he could tell and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it.  
“I can hear it,” he said, his smile widening. “Your voice gets higher in pitch.”   
I furrowed my brow. “Does it?” It must do if he was noticing it fairly consistently. He nodded and I shook my head. “Insane, it’s insane how you can hear that.”  
“Perhaps more people would notice if they paid attention.”

Biting my lip, I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It felt like he was saying that no one paid attention to me and I suppose not many people did. I didn’t exactly have many friends and I didn’t have any work colleagues like most people had.  
“Food should be here soon,” he said. He was changing the topic and wasn’t really being subtle about it. He had probably noticed a change in how I was feeling. “I hope you like nachos and tacos because smelling them earlier made me want to order some.”  
“I am so glad,” I said. “You mentioning tacos earlier made me hungry and want tacos, I have not had Mexican food in so long.”  
“Neither have I,” he mused.

Now that I wasn’t worrying about hunting or how to leave it all behind, two lines floated around my mind. Remembering what they were, I groaned.  
“I hate you,” I muttered.  
“No you don’t,” he said, chuckling at me.  
“I know,” I sighed. “But I still have the Beatles stuck in my head!” Holding my head in my hands, I let out a little frustrated scream.  
“Play the song then,” he said. “You know where the CDs are.”

Standing up, I walked around the coffee table and knelt by the CDs. It took a while to find out which one it was but eventually, I found the CD with the song on and headed over to the hi-fi system to play it.

“Uh, Deucalion?”  
“Yes?”  
“How do you turn it on?” I asked as I blankly stared at it. There was a double tape deck as well as a turntable but it seemed like Deucalion preferred CDs. If I had some of my audiobooks with me, I’d be able to play them since they were on tape. They were fairly old audiobooks, Kara had given them to be ages ago.

“With the ‘on’ button, I should think,” he said drily.  
“Wow, how didn’t I think of that?” I said, rolling my eyes as I pressed the eject button. The CD tray ejected and I sighed. “Apparently, it’s already on.”  
“Ah, I must not have turned it off.”  
“Right,” I muttered under my breath as I put the CD in and pressed play.

As soon as we got to the song I had stuck in my head, food arrived.


	9. Neuf

Yawning, I picked up the notebook again and turned to where I had last left off on the writing. After skimming through the last two paragraphs, I grabbed the pen and started writing again. Deucalion had switched CDs since the Beatles one I had played ended while we were eating.

“More writing?”  
“There’s not much else to do, really,” I said. I doubted he had the ingredients to bake many things. I still had cupcakes back at home… Dad would probably end up eating most of them.  
“Isn’t there?” he asked.  
“I don’t think so,” I said. It sounded like he had an idea and I was completely clueless. I felt a little nervous at whatever he was planning.

“Out of curiosity, Liza, do you dance?” he asked. A laugh escaped my mouth as I looked at him.  
“Dancing?” I asked. I hadn’t properly danced in years. “What kind of dancing? The kind where you are stupid with your friends or like, proper dancing?”  
“The latter, even though I guess both are proper dancing,” he said.

Staring at him, I took a deep breath. “I… Are you asking me to dance with you?”  
“No, Liza, I’m asking you to run a marathon,” he deadpanned. I laughed again.  
“Right, okay,” I said, still a little confused about it. “I haven’t done like slow dancing or really any kind of ‘proper’ dancing in years.”  
“Then I’ll teach you.”  
“Teach me?” I repeated. He stood up and offered his hand out to me.  
“That’s what I said, yes,” he said with a smirk on his face. I was kind of glad he couldn’t see the glare that I was giving him. “Besides, you’ve taught me a few things to help me eat and drink without looking like an idiot so I feel it’s fair I teach you something in return.”

As I took his hand, he pulled me to my feet and started walking around the sofa. I had no choice but to follow him since I had agreed to this. We stood in the open area between the lift and the windows for a while and then he instructed me on how to move my feet. Since he couldn’t see what I was doing just if it was anywhere near correct, which I was fairly sure I was not, it took a little while to learn the steps.

“These are just a few basic steps,” he said. “There is also the proper posture that you need to learn.”  
“Posture? I think I might be regretting this,” I said. Even though I wasn’t really, it was quite fun. “What dance even is this?”  
“The waltz.”

Laughing, I pushed my hair out of my face. While I didn’t regret dancing, I was starting to regret not tying my hair back. “Seriously?”  
“Yes, now stand up straight and don’t tense your shoulders,” he said as he placed his hands on my shoulders and gently pushed them down and backwards. As he talked me through the posture, there was a permanent smile on my face.

“Why do you even know how to do this?” I asked as we slowly practised the steps.  
“I learnt a while ago,” he said. “I don’t really remember why but I know how to now, I suppose.”  
“Oh,” I said. His answer was a little vague but it was cool that he was teaching me.

“If you don’t mind, could you please stop holding onto my arm so tight? Your life doesn’t depend on it.”  
“Sorry,” I sheepishly mumbled. My cheeks heated up a little as I loosened my grip on his arm. His arms were rather muscly, I supposed a perk of being a werewolf was strength and he certainly had the muscles. Part of me wished I had more strength but self-motivation for working out was not something I was good at.  
“It’s fine,” he said. His sweater was also very soft and it was a little bit distracting as I wondered if it was knitted. “You’re still learning.”

When we stopped dancing, the sky was dark. Dark clouds hung in the sky, covering the light of the stars. The crescent moon was visible and, occasionally, thin clouds drifted in front of it.  
“You’re distracted,” he said quietly.  
“I was just looking at the moon, it looks rather pretty tonight,” I said. I could feel his hand next to mine and I had the urge to just hold it. “It’s a shame there’s too many clouds to see the stars though.”

He hummed and it seemed he had made the decision for me as he intertwined his fingers with mine.  
“I was hoping you’d read to me again,” he said. A smile spread across my face.  
“I can do that,” I said as I moved towards the sofa. He moved with me and we sat next to each other. With the notebook in my eyes, I cleared my throat and started reading my writing. Yet again, I apparently didn’t know how to spell simple words and had to correct them.

“Are you going to write more tomorrow?” he asked once I had finished.  
“Probably, why?”  
“You’ll have to read what you have before you leave,” he said. It hit me that I’d be leaving at some point tomorrow, I had gotten a little used to being in the apartment; I sort of preferred it here than to living back at home with Chris and Dad.  
“Yeah, I will,” I said.

“Um, is it weird I kind of liked this?” I tried not to stumble over my words, especially after reading out loud for a while. This… wasn’t what I expected and I like it.”  
“It’s not weird,” he said. “It’s been rather nice.” Hearing that seemed to validate my own feelings about this odd situation.  
“I’m glad it’s not just me then,” I said. “I wish I’d be able to talk to you more, I like talking to you.”  
“Yes.”  
“I probably won’t see you again after tomorrow, if I stop being a hunter I’ll have to avoid everywhere there’s werewolves just so I don’t run into people.” The idea of that made my heart sink. Deucalion was sort of a friend at this point and I had to leave all of this behind. Even if I stayed as a hunter, I couldn’t fraternise with the enemy, Dad would kill me.

“It’s a shame, I’d like to talk to you more.”  
“You could teach me more dancing too, I liked that.” I admitted. It had been fun, even if I was tired now.  
“And you’d be able to read me more of your writing,” he said. He was smiling and I smiled back. Part of me didn’t want to go back home at the end of the three days but I had to. Chris and Dad would be worried, which was the point but it was cruel to do it for longer than necessary.

“I have to go home though,” I said. “I can’t stay here forever.” It would be weird to do that, we had only known each other for two days. And I was the daughter of the man who had blinded him, that fact alone added an extra bit of awkwardness.  
“No, that wouldn’t really be possible,” he said, his voice tinged with sadness.  
“Besides, all of my things are at home. CDs, audiobooks, all my writing stuff.”

He hand held mine again like earlier and I smiled again.  
“I should probably head to bed, I probably won’t get any tomorrow if Dad does what I expect,” I said and then figured I would elaborate. “Which would be interrogating me until he decides he’s not getting more information and decides he’d much rather sleep.” He had done it when he had caught me sneaking out. It hadn’t been the first time I had sneaked out of the house and it wasn’t the last but it was the only time he had caught me.

“That doesn’t sound too fun,” said Deucalion. “So I’ll let you go to sleep.” His hand let go of mine.  
“Goodnight, Deucalion.” Reluctantly, I stood up.  
“You can call me Deuc, it’s shorter and a lot easier,” he said.  
“Okay,” I said, smiling as I looked at him. “Goodnight, Deuc.”  
“Goodnight, Liza,” he said. He was smiling at me. “I hope you sleep well.”  
“You too.”


	10. Dix

There was a sense of dread in my stomach when I woke up. At first, I thought it was because I hadn’t eaten anything since the tacos the day before but even after I finished eating cereal, the horrible feeling remained.

“What are you nervous about?”

Turning, I saw Deucalion. He had a worried expression on his face as he walked over.  
“I’m nervous?”  
“More specifically, nervous, anxious and sad but more of the first two, I think,” he said as he sat beside me. The bowl of cereal was empty. “Is it because you have to go back later?”  
“Maybe.” Upon evaluating my answer, I spoke again. “Probably.”  
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” he said.  
“I’m glad someone believes in me,” I said with an awkward laugh. He just smiled.

I grabbed the empty bowl and put it in the dishwasher before turning to face him.  
“Do we get to dance today?”  
“Why, are you looking forward to it?” he asked as he sat down where I had been sitting a few moments before.  
“Maybe I am,” I said with a smile on my face.  
“You’re smiling again and perhaps after breakfast,” he said. “And only if you read to me after dinner.”  
“I was going to do that anyway,” I said.

My elbow rested on the counter and my chin rested on my hand. He clasped his hands together in front of him.  
“Perhaps I was going to ask you to dance anyway,” he said with a smile on his face.  
“Maybe you were,” I said with a shrug as I grabbed a bowl and set it in front of him.  
“Don’t you believe me?” he asked with a frown and I felt slightly bad just looking at him.  
“I do,” I said quietly. But I knew he heard it as he smiled again. “And, let me guess, you want chocolate cheerios with only a little bit of milk?”  
“If you’re offering.”

After breakfast, Deucalion claimed I had learned the basic steps well enough to dance to music. He also said that was the only way to get better at the steps, to dance in time to music.

It turned out to be a lot more tiring than I had expected. And a little bit repetitive. The repetitiveness didn’t seem to bother Deucalion but it was slowly irritating me.

“Perhaps I should cook dinner soon.”  
“Are you sure?” I asked as I took the CD out of the player.  
“Yes, you are my guest. I helped you cook the first time and we had take-out yesterday so that doesn’t really count,” he said. He seemed fairly insistent on it. “Besides, you can have a little extra time to write.”  
“I can help you if you need it,” I said as I put the CD back in its correct place. Despite being blind, I had the feeling he would know if I put the CD back in the wrong place.  
“I know.”

Smiling, I picked the notebook and pen up and headed over to the breakfast bar. I sat and he raised his eyes.  
“I can at least provide some company.” He smiled and set to cooking food while I opened the notebook and flicked to the last page I had written on. I had written a fair few pages. Twenty-two, to be exact. Both sides of the pages too. I didn’t want to waste paper even if the ink slightly bled through the paper at times.

I stopped writing while eating, it felt a little rude to carry on.

“Do I read to you after this?”  
“If you’d like,” he said as he placed his knife and fork down on his empty plate. Either he was a really quick eater or I was a really slow eater and I was starting to think it was the latter of the two options.  
“I would like to.”  
“You’re smiling again.”  
Laughing a little, I had to pause from eating just so I didn’t risk spitting out food or choking on any of it. “Do you really have to point it out?”  
“I will if it keeps getting these kinds of reactions.” Shaking my head, I carried on eating and tried not to smile as I said anything.

As soon as we finished, I returned to writing. But only for an hour or so, then I’d read to him. The hour turned into two while listening to music again but eventually I stopped at what I thought was a good place to end it, since I was likely to never return to the story.

His arm was resting on the back of the sofa and I shuffled across to sit closer to him. He smiled as I flicked back to where I had stopped reading to him the night before. This was going to be the last time I could do this. After clearing my throat, I let myself relax and read the words I had written.

I closed the notebook and leaned forward to place it on the coffee table.  
“That’s the last time I’ll be able to do that then,” I said, feeling a tinge of sadness as I let go of the notebook and rested the pen on top of it. Leaning back, I remembered Deucalion’s arm was behind me on the sofa. He didn’t seem to mind me resting against it. “What do you think of it?”  
“I like the striking descriptions, as always,” he said. “And I like the way you read, the way you add personality into the dialogue.” My cheeks heated up as I smiled and thanked him.

“Do you have a favourite bit?” I turned to face him.  
“The waterfall still, I think,” he said. “But other than that, I’m rather fond of your reading.”  
Nervously, I chuckled. I wasn’t sure what to say in response. “Thank you, I’m glad you liked it.”

He turned to face me and yet again, I couldn’t bring myself to look away from his red ringed eyes. There was just something interesting about the way they had healed.  
“You’re sweet, Liza. I’m afraid I don’t know many people like you.”  
“And I don’t know many people like you, you’re quite unique.” He smiled and, as usual, I smiled back. “I should probably change into my other clothes and head back.”  
“Yes, probably a good idea,” he said but he sounded a little hesitant.

I stood and headed back to the guest room. I had made the bed earlier in the morning. I left the dirty clothes folded, there was probably a utility room somewhere. After changing into the clothes I had arrived in, I grabbed the dirty clothes and left the room. I couldn’t take a last look at it despite it being the nicest room I had ever slept in. Deucalion pointed me in the direction of the utility room where I could leave the clothes.

Standing by the elevator, I waited for it to reach the top floor. I turned around to see Deucalion standing in front of me.  
“Could you do me a favour?” I asked. I knew the cover story I was going to use and it wasn’t the one Deuc had suggested about him being my boyfriend. It was a bit more believable than that.  
“What is it?”  
“Scratch my cheek,” I said a little shakily. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this but I knew I had to.

He frowned slightly as he placed his hand on my cheek. His eyes glowed red and I winced back as his claws dug into my flesh. I muttered a thanks as I gingerly pressed my fingers against the wound on my cheekbone.  
“It shouldn’t scar,” he said.

“I should go, Deuc. I have to escape while your distracted or something like that,” I said. He reached forward and I took his hand. “I’ll think of more specifics on the walk back, I guess.”  
“I almost don’t want to say goodbye.”  
“Then don’t,” I said with a shrug. His eyes were still glowing but his claws had returned to normal nails. Hearing the elevator doors open, I let go of his hand and took a step backward. “It was nice spending time with you.”

I pressed the button, I couldn’t believe I felt like crying at this. I had known him for three days. Three days wasn’t long at all and certainly not enough to be crying. Or maybe I was crying over what I was about to do.

“You too, Liza.”

The doors closed and the elevator started moving downwards.


	11. Onze

The door to my house was right in front of me.

How did I walk in? Panicked or like I was in pain? Panicked was probably closer to my current state. In fact, panicked explained my current state rather perfectly.

The door handle turned and I pushed the door open. Shutting it behind me, I had to lean against it.  
“Chris? Dad?” I called out. I heard what sounded like a plate clattering before Chris rushed from the kitchen. He looked exhausted but pulled me into a hug.  
“Where the hell have you been?” he asked as he pulled away from me. He cupped my face in his hands and I tried to bat them away.  
“Deucalion,” I said, hoping that would be enough.

“Deucalion?”  
“He said he wanted some form of revenge, for being blinded and having some of his Betas killed or something like that,” I elaborated. Chris pulled me into another hug as Dad walked down the stairs.

“Liz, we've looked everywhere for you,” he said. He didn't seem as enthusiastic about my return. Chris glanced over at him and moved out of the way so Dad could see me.  
“You didn't search his penthouse.”  
“His penthouse?” repeated Chris. He raised his eyebrows and sighed. “That’s why we couldn't find you then.” Dad just stared at me.  
“You must be hungry, and thirsty.” Eagerly, I nodded. I had missed coffee and I hadn't eaten anything in a few hours, though they probably thought it would be longer than that.

Two cups of coffee in five minutes.

I missed coffee.

I tried to eat the food placed in front of me as quickly as possible, just to make it seem like I hadn’t eaten in a while.  
“So he kept you in a guest bedroom?” asked Dad. I nodded since my mouth was full of food. “He didn’t torture you?”  
“One of his Betas tried, I think. Becca or something? I don’t know,” I said before eating more food. “Then they found out I can’t take much pain and that I knew nothing.”

“How did you get out?” asked Chris. He looked a little less exhausted.  
“There weren’t any Betas and he was on the balcony and I managed to get to the elevator,” I said once I had finished eating. Now there was just an empty plate on the table and two empty coffee cups.

“Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused?” asked Dad. He slammed his hand down on the table and I flinched at the loud noise. “Chris was supposed to go back to Victoria and Allison yesterday. Even Kate was coming here to help find you.”  
“I’m sorry, okay?” I said. Why was I getting yelled at? As far as they knew, I had been kidnapped. “I didn’t mean to get taken, did I?”  
“It was still stupid to go on a walk alone. Why didn’t you make sure your phone was charged? Or take Chris with you?”  
“Because I’m an adult, I wasn’t aware I needed a chaperone,” I snapped at him as I stood up. “I need some sleep.”

“Liz, sit back down.”  
“Why? Don’t I deserve some rest?” My voice got a little louder as I spoke. “I didn’t want to get kidnapped by a recently blinded Alpha werewolf, I wanted to go and watch the sun set! I need sleep so I can catch up on work tomorrow.”  
“No, sit down!” Flinching again, I stared at him. He hadn’t yelled at me like this since he caught me sneaking out and this time I was allegedly not willing.

Chris glanced at Dad and I looked between them.  
“Chris, you should get some sleep,” said Dad. Chris didn’t move. “Chris, we’ll be fine.”  
“I would have been, if I hadn't been kidnapped.”  
Dad glared at me. “Did you?”  
“Would I really just walk into his penthouse willingly? I’d probably get killed on sight.” Dad just stared at me still.  
“Maybe she should sleep,” suggested Chris and Dad turned to stare at him.  
“I’m in agreement with that.”

Rather reluctantly, Dad let me head back to my room. Shutting the door behind me, I let out a sigh. They believed me, for now. Though, Dad seemed suspicious of it. He was suspicious of everything I had said. Why didn’t he trust me? Was it because I knew what he had done? But how would he have known?  


I couldn’t let my mind focus on it, otherwise I’d get no sleep. And I needed sleep.


	12. Douze

Yawning, I stuffed the last spoonful of cereal into my mouth. I craved chocolate cheerios but we didn’t have any of those. My phone was now charged and I was waiting for it to turn ten o’clock so I could call Kara and know she was awake.

“I don’t think you were kidnapped,” said Dad.  
“Of course she was, she’s not stupid,” said Chris as he sat down beside me. “Thanks for the cupcakes, they were nice.” I smiled at him, remembering the cupcake I had picked out for him. He must have eaten some of the others too. There probably wasn’t any left which meant the only ones I had eaten were the two at Kara’s house.  
“I’m glad,” I said.

Heading back upstairs, I dialled Kara’s number and, almost instantly, she picked up.  
“Hey,” I said.  
“Hi, are you okay?” she asked.  
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, awkwardly laughing a little as I reached the top of the stairs.

“Mom said that Deucalion had kidnapped you or something like that.” Kara was speaking so quickly I could barely make out what she was saying. “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”  
“I’m… I’m as fine as I can be and I’m not really hurt, just a scratch or two,” I said. I couldn’t help but smile at her but the smile faded as I shut the bedroom door and remembered what I was planning on doing. “It’s just… a lot’s happened, I guess. I don’t know how to feel about everything.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

“I get that, I’m sort of feeling the same,” she said. Her dad…  
“Have you got a date for the funeral?” I asked.  
“Monday after next,” she said, her voice shaking a little. “Mom’s been organising it and everything.” Humming, I sat down and lay back on the bed.  
“I’ll be there for you,” I said. Even with everything going on, the least I could do for Kara was be there at her dad’s funeral.

We carried on talking for a while, I told her that Chris liked the cupcakes and she was happy to hear it. Hearing the door open, I looked over to see Dad standing in the doorway. I quickly said goodbye to Kara, I sat up and stared at him.  
“What?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.  
“You’re lying.”  
“Lying? About being kidnapped? Why would I lie about that?”  
“I raised you, I know when you’re lying,” he said as he walked towards me. I stood up and stared at him, my eyebrows raised. He didn’t answer my question at all.

“Why would I lie?” I asked again. He just stared at me.  
“You knew I lied,” he said.  
“And maybe he knew that too,” I said with a shrug. “He wanted revenge for what you did, this is your fault.” It was a half-truth again. Not quite a lie but not quite the truth.  
“My fault? I did what was best for us as hunters, you got yourself taken by werewolves. You had us worried.”  
“Yeah, I’d expect you to be worried,” I said. That was what this had been for, but it had been pointless. I just ruined everything. “But I’m fine now, I will be fine. I’m not being held captive in his penthouse.”

“I want you to stay in for the next few days,” he said, changing the topic from lying. “Just in case he tries to do something again.”  
“I’ll be fine, I’ll take a gun with me if I’m going out.”  
“Why didn’t you take one when you went for a walk?”  
“I wasn’t expecting to need it,” I hissed through gritted teeth. Why was he so persistent?

“No, just don’t leave.”  
“You can’t keep me trapped in here,” I said. He wasn’t serious, was he? “It would make you no better than Deucalion.”  
“I’m doing it to keep you safe.”  
“It doesn’t feel like it. If you wanted to keep us safe, you would have accepted his offer of peace,” I yelled. I hadn't really yelled at him before. But he didn’t care. He didn’t care about peace, he didn’t care if he ended up like the supposed monsters he was hunting.  
“You watch your mouth, Liz. I don’t know how he’s changed you but it doesn’t seem like it’s for the better.”

Dad turned and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Huffing, I collapsed back onto the bed.

I hated all of this.

Noticing a notebook on the desk, I headed over and sat down. I picked up a cheap ballpoint pen and stared at the pages. It was an article I was trying to write. No doubt it would be outdated now.

I wanted to continue writing the story I had started a few days prior but that was at Deucalion’s penthouse in his fancy and expensive notebook and I couldn’t remember exactly how I had left off. I let out a little frustrated scream and threw the pen at the desk. It started rolling towards the edge and I grabbed it before it could fall off.

Resting my head on my arms, I remembered the frantic notes I had made in the back of the notebook. I needed to dye my hair, cut it, and wear different clothes. How was I going to do any of that if I was stuck inside?

As I thought back to the notebook and the writing, I remembered listening to the Beatles and those two lines appeared in my head.

And we didn’t have any Beatles CDs to play as far as I was aware.

Groaning, I lifted my head up and stared out of the window. The fall from the window would hurt, I knew it would. I had to leave soon before this made me insane.

But then I remembered the funeral. I had promised Kara I would be there.

It was only a week away, I could manage a week.

And those two Beatles lines were stuck in my head again.

Why did this all have to be so difficult?


	13. Treize

I was fairly certain I was going crazy. Seven days without leaving the house. Chris didn’t want to let me sneak out in case Dad found out and got angry at him too, I couldn’t blame him for it. I’d mentioned to Chris that I had suggested a truce to Deucalion between the two of us and his pack and Chris hesitantly agreed that he wouldn’t hurt them as long as they didn’t attack us.

Adam Lewis’s funeral was tomorrow and there was a horrible feeling in my chest that I couldn’t name.

If Deucalion was here, he’d probably know how I was feeling just from scent and I wouldn’t be struggling so much with this. It would also be a lot easier to practice dancing if there was someone who actually knew how to dance in the room with me.

I had organised an appointment at a local hair salon to get my hair cut, dyed and styled after the funeral, which was on Monday morning. I had picked something out of the Vogue magazine that I had liked and figured that would do. I was planning to go shopping too and get new clothes. I figured dresses would work, I hadn’t worn a dress in years and that was different enough from my usual skinny jeans and band shirts.

Part of me still couldn’t believe I was doing this, I was really going to run away from being a hunter, from my friends and my family.

I’d have to leave Kara and Chris.

Rubbing my eyes, I took a deep breath and called Kara. I hadn’t been allowed to visit her, even when Chris offered to go with me. She had visited us once, with her mother. It was slightly awkward and felt as if they were chaperoning a date or something.

“Hello?” I heard on the other end of the phone.  
“Hey, how are you doing?” I asked.  
“I’m… as okay as I can be,” she said quietly. I could barely hear her over the phone’s crackling noise. “How about you?”  
“I think I’m going mad,” I muttered.  
“I hope not, I don’t want to have to visit you in Eichen House.”  
“Oh no, I hope not,” I said quickly, shaking my head.

“I’ve missed talking to you,” I said once Kara had stopped giggling. I would miss talking to her too. I wished I hadn’t picked the day of the funeral to leave but it was the only time the hairdresser was free to spend that much time on my hair.  
“We haven’t really stopped talking,” she said, sounding slightly confused.  
“I know, it’s just… it’s those three days, everything just seems different now.”  
“It’s alright, a lot’s happened.”

I hummed and as usual, we changed the topic and continued talking until she had to leave to make food.

As soon as I hung up, I turned to see Chris.  
“I know there’s something you’re not telling us,” he said. It felt like he was trying to stare hard enough to read my mind but then he relaxed his stance. “But I know you’ll tell me when you’re ready to, something happened that you’re not comfortable talking about.”  
Swallowing, I realised he had no idea how close to the truth he was. “Yeah…” I said quietly.

“I know Dad’s being tough but he’s just scared you’ll disappear and you won’t escape next time,” said Chris. Chris was probably scared I would disappear and they would only find a corpse.  
“I know,” I said. Even though I knew Dad was still suspicious, I didn’t mention that to Chris. The same way I didn’t mention how Adam Lewis really died to his daughter who was my best friend.

“I just, I can’t take this any more, Chris,” I said. It was more to do with the hunting and Dad but I couldn’t tell him that. “I can’t take being stuck inside ‘for my own good’ and all of this. I’m going to the funeral tomorrow whether Dad thinks it’s safe or not, I’m not letting my best friend go through it without me. I can’t write, I can’t sleep and I can’t hunt, what am I supposed to do?”  
“When we move back, you’ll be fine. Deucalion won’t be around back at home.”

I hummed and hung my head. “How’s Victoria and Allison?”  
“They miss me, they understand why I couldn’t go back yet though,” he said, nodding his head. He had a frown on his face.  
“I’m sorry I delayed you going back home,” I said. I truly felt bad about that, Allison was only young and she probably missed Chris. I hadn’t seen her in months, or was it closer to a year?  
“You couldn’t help it, a gun wouldn’t have stopped them from taking you.”

At least Chris understood that. Not that it was what had happened but he understood anyway.

“Chris, I…” I trailed off. I couldn’t tell him, I couldn’t bring myself to. Biting my lip, I had to think of what to say. “I wish this wasn’t our life.”  
“We protect people,” he said, almost like it was instinctive.  
“I know, but I don’t really do that. I snipe werewolves from a distance, it hardly protects people,” I said.  
“Is that what you’re worried about?” he asked and I shrugged. He put his hand on my shoulder and smiled. “You’re a good hunter, you just have to ignore what Dad says. He’s just angry at the moment.”

I faked a smile and thanked him before excusing myself. I guessed now would be a good time to pack my things for tomorrow. I didn’t have much to take with me since I had to buy new clothes. I had to take my notebooks and stationary and some of my books. I wanted to take some audiobooks and tapes with me too, even if I might not have a way to listen to them for a while.

I still couldn’t believe I was doing this.


	14. Quatorze

I sat beside Chris in the church, dressed in black like everyone else. Kara and her mother and the rest of her family sat by the front. The whole ceremony was generally gloomy and grim. It was a closed casket, because the ‘animal attack’ had left the body unsightly to look at. I couldn’t imagine a dead body would be comforting to look at for me, though.

Throughout the ceremony, there was a simmering hatred for Dad building up. It was his fault this was even happening.

I was glad to leave the stuffy church and walk with Chris to where the casket would be buried. Kara’s face was red and her eyes were puffy and I just wanted to hug her. I couldn’t imagine how she must be feeling, I wasn’t very good at dealing with things like this so it was probably for the best that Kara had her mother instead of me at the moment.

Once the casket had been buried in the ground and some words had been said, people started to disperse.

“You haven’t told her, have you?” asked Dad once Chris got in his car.  
“No, you said not to,” I said as I shook my head. I wanted to tell her the truth but she had no reason to believe me.  
“Good,” he said. “I knew you’d understand.”  
“What you did resulted in me getting kidnapped,” I muttered as we walked.  
“No, your stupidity resulted in that,” he said. “If that’s what even happened.”

I glared at him and stopped walking. “Why don’t you trust me? I haven’t done anything wrong!” A funeral was not where I wanted to have this conversation. I supposed it was going to happen at some point anyway.  
“You went to Deucalion, I know you did,” he said.

How did he know that?

I furrowed my brow and crossed my arms. “What?”  
“You went to that penthouse yourself, his Betas didn’t take you there.” I couldn’t just deny this, he knew. Somehow, he knew what I had intended to do when I went to Deucalion.  
“Because you blinded him and killed my best friend’s father,” I replied coldly. There wasn’t any point in denying it. “None of this would have happened if not for you.”  
“You’ve betrayed us, Liz.”  
“And you didn’t? You didn’t just kill the Betas, you killed other hunters.”

How did he even know what I had intended to do?

There were tears in my eyes and it took everything not to scream at him. I couldn’t take this any more. I couldn’t stand hunting and lying any more. My dad had been lying to me and as a result I had been lying to Kara and Chris. I couldn’t do it.

“I’m not being a hunter any more.”

“I’ll disown you,” he threatened. He stopped and glared at me with a cold rage in his eyes. “You wouldn’t survive as a freelancer, you’d end up homeless, is that really what you want?”  
“Disown me then, I don’t care. I’m not being a hunter,” I said before turning to see Chris. I had no idea how much he had heard.  
“Are you two getting in the car?” he asked with a furrowed brow.  
Shaking my head, I turned and left. “No, I’m leaving.”

Turning, I walked away from the two of them as quickly as I could. I wished I could have said a sort of goodbye to Kara but there was no time. I had to get back home, get my things and go to the hair appointment.

After locking the door to the house behind me, I left the keys in the mailbox and headed to the hair appointment. It was in half an hour and I couldn’t take the car, even if I still had the only set of keys. I’d have to walk.

Several hours later, I stood outside with a bag of new clothes in my hands, on the verge of breaking down into tears with soft ginger curls instead of straight, dark hair.

I was doing this.

I was finally leaving this all behind.

I hoped I would be happier.

Then it hit me, I didn’t have anywhere to go. I hadn’t planned for this part. How hadn’t I planned for this part? I had nowhere to stay the night and I doubted there was anywhere local that would let me stay on such short notice. Looking down at my phone, I saw all of the texts and missed calls from Chris. I turned the phone off.

I couldn’t go back home, I’d need my car to drive and that was on the drive. I had the keys but I didn’t want to risk going back home. As I aimlessly walked around backstreets, I had an idea. It was probably a bad idea but there might be one place I might be able to stay.

Staring up at the apartment block and taking a deep breath, I walked inside. This was my last resort. I headed over to the elevator and was surprised as no Beta greeted me. I was also surprised to find that the elevator was heading to the top floor, I thought a key was needed.

Breathe. I needed to breathe.

No, I was breathing too much.

Hyperventilating. That was the word for it.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened and I tentatively took a step forward.

“Liza?”

Turning to the left, I saw Deucalion sitting at the head of the dining table. With none other than the other Alphas. Ennis, Kali and Talia Hale were all sitting at his table, all of them staring at me. This was not the right time to be here.

He stood and walked towards me, his eyes glowing red. I dropped the bag of clothes and I realised I was shaking far too much. And I still needed to breathe properly, that was important.

“Deuc, I…”

I couldn’t get the words out, they wouldn’t leave my mouth. I stammered over them and I was shaking too much and I wasn’t breathing properly.

“What have I done?”


	15. Quinze

His hands grabbed my arms and his eyes stopped glowing.  
“Liza, calm down,” he said. It was an order, closer to an instruction, but it wasn’t harsh like my dad’s voice had been. “Why are you here?”  
“I had an argument, with Dad, I had an argument,” I stammered.  
“With Gerard?” he asked. I nodded. My eyes drifted to the Alphas at the dining table.  
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, with Dad.”  
“Liza, you need to calm down.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I had to calm down.

“I told him I wasn’t being a hunter any more, he knew why I’d come here, I… I don’t have anywhere to go,” I told him. “And I’ve ended up here.”

“She’s an Argent.” That was Ennis. I looked at Deucalion, at his eyes and tried not to focus on the Alphas at the dining table. “They might be trying to trick you.”

“You really left?” he asked quietly, ignoring what Ennis had said.  
“Yes,” I said as sincerely as I possibly could. He had to know I wasn’t lying even if my heart was racing and I was so anxious I felt like I was about to pass out.

“Elizabeth Argent,” said Talia Hale as she stood. “That’s your name, isn’t it?”  
“Yes,” I said, nodding as I watched her walk towards me. “Gerard Argent’s daughter, though I’m fairly sure I just told him to disown me.”  
“You’re not lying.”  
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not.” She looked at Deucalion, seemingly waiting for him to say something.

“Wait in the guest bedroom, I’ll talk to you when this is finished,” he said softly.  
“Yeah, okay,” I said. He gently squeezed my arms and let go of me. I picked up my bag and headed to the guest bedroom where I had slept before. As I passed the dining table, it was hard to ignore the death stares I was receiving from Ennis and Kali.

I shut the door and dropped the bag of clothes by it before climbing onto the double bed. Tears fell as I sobbed. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go, I was supposed to just disappear, not argue and storm off. What was he going to tell Kara? And Chris?

This was the worst time I could have chosen to appear at Deucalion’s penthouse. Two of the Alphas looked as though they wanted to tear me limb from limb and I had no idea what Talia Hale was thinking. And I could only hope Deucalion was going to be kind.

There were knocks on the door and I stood to answer it. I was still dressed in all black from the funeral.  
“Liza? They have left now,” he said. “If you want to be left alone for a while, I understand but I’d also like to talk to you.” I wiped my cheeks with my sleeves before I opened the door.

“I only need a night, I-”  
“Liza, it’s alright,” he interrupted. “I know you’re telling the truth and it was admittedly awkward explaining to the others why you just came here but I’m sure they’ll live with it.” Smiling, I took a step towards him. “Thank you.”  
“You can stay for a few nights, at least. I won’t be staying here much longer myself,” he said.

“Did you really do it?”  
Laughing a little, I nodded. “Yes, I really did. At my best friend’s father’s funeral too. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”  
“Kara, right?” he asked. “Her father was called… Adam, I think.”  
“Yeah, he was.” I had no idea how he knew that name, I had mentioned Kara to him by name but not her father. He likely knew all of the hunter’s names, he had known mine.

Nervously, I looked at him and I still wasn’t sure if I regretted all of this.  
“Would it be weird if I asked for a hug?”  
“No, it wouldn’t be,” he said. Stepping forward, I wrapped my arms around him, my fingers clutching at his knitted sweater. He pulled me a little closer and I rested my head on his chest and I tried to keep my breathing steady.

“Liza, it’s okay to feel sad and scared,” he said softly. “You’re going through a lot, it’s rather understandable. If you’d like some time to yourself, you can have as much time as you need and you can stay here for as long as you need too.”  
“No,” I said, maybe a little too quickly. “I’d rather not be alone, I hadn’t left the house in over a week before today.”  
“Then you don’t have to be alone.”

“Why are you being so nice to me? You’re not supposed to be nice to me,” I said. He was an Alpha and I was a hunter until a few hours ago.  
“Not supposed to be nice to you?” he repeated. It sounded ridiculous hearing him saying it. He had been kind to me when I was here last time, why would it be different now? “You’re sweet, Liza. And I’ve already said I like you, you’re nothing like your father and I’m glad for it.”

I looked up at him with his arms still around me and smiled. I didn’t need to hear his heartbeat or smell his emotions to know he was being honest.  
“I’ve missed you,” I said. I laughed a little. “Everything reminded me of here, and how much I liked it being here. And how much I like you and your dancing and your stupid taste in music that keeps getting stuck in my head.” He chuckled and I closed my eyes.  
“Though I’ll never admit it in front of anyone but you, I’ve missed you being here too,” he said quietly. “I’ve missed hearing your voice.”

“I guess I’ll have to write more of that story for you then,” I said, laughing a little. If I didn’t laugh, I was sure I’d end up crying.  
“I wouldn’t complain about that.”  
I smiled. “But only if you teach me how to dance again, it’s hard to practice when I’m stuck in a house with no one who knows how to dance.”

“Of course,” he said, smirking slightly. “Because you weren’t going to write anyway?”  
“I might write anyway, I just might not read it to you.”  
“That would be cruel,” he said. “And you’re not a cruel person.”  
“I guess I’m not, I’d feel bad about doing that,” I admitted. He still had his arms around me.

“When was the last time you ate?” he asked.  
I shrugged. “I… don’t know, this morning, probably?” I hadn’t thought about food all day and now the mention of it made my stomach rumble.  
“I’ll cook you something then.”  
“Thank you.”


	16. Seize

The Beatles was playing as I sat next to him on the sofa. It was the song that had kept getting stuck in my head, I Want To Hold Your Hand. I didn't feel like writing, even though I would have loved to read to him. Instead, I rested my head on his shoulder and listened to the music.

“Are you alright?” he asked.  
“I don't know,” I said honestly. Things sort of felt weird. I wasn't sure if I was going to cry or if I just felt nothing, like a weird emotional shock. “I really don't know.”  
“You're an intelligent lady, I'm sure you'll be fine,” he said, his hand resting on my knee.  
“I wouldn't describe myself as a lady,” I said, lifting my head a little to look at his face.  
“I would.”

I rested my head on his shoulder again, I felt weirdly safe here, high above everyone else. His thumb traced soothing circles and his voice was calming and that was what I needed right now.  
“I really don't know how to thank you enough,” I told him.  
“You don't have to.”

I sighed. “I’m tired,” I said. “But I have the horrible feeling I won’t be able to sleep.”  
“If you fall asleep here then I’ll carry you back to your room,” he said. I smiled, I didn’t doubt he would do that for a moment. He certainly had the strength to but he’d have to partially shift to see where he was going. “And if you want to talk, I can listen.”

“I just… it’s what he said, about being homeless because I’d never make it as a freelancer,” I said, taking him up on the offer of talking. I didn’t expect him to say much back, he hated Dad and right now, I was inclined to agree with Deucalion. “It just hurt, he always said he never minded it, just that he thought it was a bit of a waste of my time.”  
“I don't think it is,” he said.  
“I know you don’t,” I said, smiling a bit. “But he did. And I think… I don’t know, it just hurts to realise he never really cared at all.”

“That would hurt,” he said. His hand moved from my knee to hold my hand. “I can understand why you’re upset.”  
“I’m sorry I’m just telling you all of this,” I said, shaking my head.  
“No, if it helps I don’t mind.”  
“I’ve talked to you for all of three days, even if they were rather odd, especially everything leading up to them.”

“Why should that matter?”  
“I don’t know, usually how long you’ve known someone has a lot to do with things.”  
“Not always,” he said.  
My brow furrowed. “Not always? What do you mean?”  
“I’ve turned Betas because they’ve asked and I’ve turned people because they were dying, how long I had known them has had nothing to do with their status in the pack.” He had a point but werewolf packs didn’t really function the same as other relationships. I wasn’t even sure what sort of relationship this was.

“I should go to sleep but I can’t be bothered to get up,” I mumbled.  
He chuckled. “I’d offer to carry you but I think I’d know the answer to that.”  
“No, don’t carry me,” I said, shaking my head.  
“I thought you might say that,” he said with a smile on his face.

“You know, you have really soft sweaters,” I said in a feeble attempt to change the topic.  
“I know,” he said. “They’re comfortable so I wear them.”  
“But they’re just so soft,” I repeated and he just shook his head at me. “How are they so soft?”  
“I don’t know, I don’t make them,” he said. “You should get some sleep, otherwise you’ll regret it tomorrow.”

Sighing, I pushed myself off the sofa and turned to face him.  
“Goodnight, Deuc,” I said. “And again, thank you.”  
“Stop thanking me,” he said. But I’d probably still thank him again tomorrow. “And goodnight, Liza. Get some sleep.”  
“I’ll try, no promises,” I said as I headed to the guest bedroom.

Shutting the door behind me, I smiled to myself and then frowned. I couldn’t go back to Chris or Kara. Dad would probably have practically disowned me at this point. I took my phone from my pocket and put it in the draw of the bedside table. It was still turned off. I pulled out pajamas from my bag and changed into them. I had brought some pajamas and had left most of my jeans since I was trying to change what I was wearing so I didn’t get recognised.

Lying on the bed, I stared up at the ceiling, fighting the urge to cry. I couldn’t cry, not after all this. I had cried earlier and it hadn’t really helped anything.

Realising the blinds and the curtains were open, I stared at them for a moment before getting up to close them. I could see the stars tonight, the sky was cloudless and the moon’s crescent was tiny and since it had been a crescent closer to a half moon last night, I figured that it would be a new moon on one of the next nights.

After shutting the curtains, I collapsed back onto the bed and curled up underneath the covers. I was going to need coffee tomorrow and I knew there wasn’t going to be any. There would be tea though, and no Dad yelling at me. No longer would I have to worry about lying to Kara or Chris because Deucalion knew what had happened, he was there. I didn’t have to lie to him about anything and I didn’t want to lie to him, not that I had any reason to.

I was grateful that he had let me stay here, despite the other Alphas, and I would have to pay him back somehow. It felt a little rude to just leave it at thank you when I would have been sleeping on the streets if not for him.

Closing my eyes, I wished sleep would come soon but it didn’t seem to want to, leaving me tossing and turning and struggling to get comfortable during the night. And unfortunately it felt like nothing new, I hadn’t slept properly since I had left here and gone home. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad now I was back with Deucalion and away from Dad.


	17. Dix-Sept

Heading to the kitchen, I covered my yawn with my hand and sat down at the breakfast bar. Deucalion was already in the process of making tea.  
“Would you like a cup?” he asked.  
“If you don’t mind,” I said.  
“I wouldn’t have offered otherwise.”  
“Thank you,” I said before standing up to make myself breakfast.

Deuc turned and stared at me. “Sit down, I’ll make you breakfast.” Deciding not to protest, I sat back down and waited for him to put a bowl of cereal in front of me, and a cup of tea.  
“I don’t have milk,” I reminded him.  
“I know,” he said with a proud smirk as he set the cup down in front of me. “You’re lactose intolerant.”  
“You remembered that?” I asked, a smile spreading across my face. I was shocked, not many people seemed to remember it. Or they just thought it was an optional problem, as if I could turn it off.  
“Yes, why wouldn’t I?”  
“Most people don’t,” I said quietly.

Once I had finished eating breakfast, I rested my chin on my hand and looked at Deucalion. In the midst of my late night crisis, a thought had popped into my head.  
“What are we?” I asked him.  
“What?”  
“Like, are we friends? Are we more than that? Is there a weird middle ground between friendship and dating because if so, I think we’re somewhere in that grey area,” I asked. He stopped eating and thought for a moment.  
“You know, for once, I don’t think I have an answer to that question.”

I chuckled, I think I had made him sort of speechless.  
“Well, I suppose we’re room-mates or whatever the equivalent of that is,” he said. “I’m not sure if there are any other words to describe this.”  
“Right,” I said slowly. If anyone was going to know, it probably would have been Deucalion. Or Kara, but I couldn’t really ask her.  
“Do we need a word for it?”  
“I guess not,” I said with a shrug. It seemed we were both in agreement that this was odd.

“Oh,” I said, as I remembered Chris. “Chris agreed to the truce. He said that as long as you and your pack don’t hurt him or me, then he won’t hunt you.”  
“That’s good, I thought he’d already agreed to it.”  
“Well, it was more of a loose suggestion and while he seemed hesitant to properly agree, he did agree to it properly this time,” I said a little sheepishly.  
“At least he’s agreed.”

I stared at him for a moment before reaching out and taking his hand.  
“I really do feel like I have to thank you, even if you insist I don’t,” I said. “And I feel like I have to do something else as a thank you.”  
“You really are persistent,” he said and I awkwardly laughed. I was rather persistent, slightly more than he was about how I didn’t need to thank him. “But…”  
“But?” I said, prompting him to say more.  
“But if you insist, dedicate the story to me, the one in the notebook you’ve been reading to me, with the waterfall and the beautiful descriptions,” he said.

I wasn’t expecting that. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting but it wasn’t that.

“Really?” I asked.  
He smiled. “Yes,” he said. “That’s all I ask for.”  
“I can do that,” I said. “If it ever gets published anywhere, it’ll say it’s dedicated to you right at the beginning.”  
“I like the sound of that.”  
“Dedicated to Deucalion,” I said. It was fun to say so I repeated it and he laughed. “It’s oddly fun to say.”  
“I’m sure it is,” he said before turning back to his breakfast.

He didn’t let go of my hand as he ate and there just seemed to be a permanent smile on my face every time I looked at him.  
“Can we dance after this?” I asked. He smiled and nodded. “And then I’ll write your story for you, so I can read it later.”  
“It sounds wonderful.”

After downing the remaining half of my cup of tea, I put the empty bowls, cups and the cutlery in the dishwasher ready to be cleaned.

“Do you want to practice what I taught you last time?” he asked before pulling his jumper over his head. I was caught a little off guard by how his shirt clung to his muscles. It seemed today was a day of surprises. “Are you alright?”

Oh no. He had realised.

“I’m fine,” I said, probably a little too quickly as I walked over to him. As I turned to face him, I noticed the skirt of the dress flared out a little and I smiled.  
“What are you happy about?”  
“The dress, it sort of flares out when I turn,” I said, giggling at it. He smiled and his eyes glowed bright red. I twirled and the dress flared out and I carried on laughing. “I haven’t worn dresses like this in ages, I kind of miss it actually.”  
“You look nice,” he said. His eyes had returned back to normal. I thanked him as I stepped towards him.

“Dancing the waltz then, right? I haven’t really practised very well, I’m warning you now.”  
“You’re still learning,” he said as he placed his hand on my back.

I had forgotten how tiring and repetitive it was to dance when there was someone else to stop me from giving up after five minutes of failing. But I couldn’t deny that it was fun, it wasn’t something I would have learnt if not for him.

Sitting down on the sofa, I noticed the notebook on the coffee table. I was slightly sweaty which wasn’t fun at all but I could deal with it. As I picked up the notebook, Deuc sat beside me. He held the pen in his hand and offered it out to me.  
“I think you’ll need this,” he said with a smile. With a smile on my face, I took the pen from him and thanked him.

As I wrote, he played music as usual and occasionally headed out to the balcony. I couldn’t blame him, it was a sunny day and looked quite warm outside. At one point, he asked if I wanted chocolate and brought me some as a snack which I found rather endearing.

After dinner, I carried on writing for a little while and then stopped.  
“Would you like me to read now? I’ve stopped at a nice point. Well, nice for me,” I said with a grin. It was probably not a nice place for him since it was a cliffhanger.  
“I’d like that,” he said as he turned the music off and after putting the CD back in its correct place, he sat next to me. “Whenever you’re ready then.”

Smiling, I started to read to him.


	18. Dix-Huit

When I woke up, I was sweating and the sun was strong enough to shine through the blinds and the curtains. Groaning, I changed into another dress. Like the one I had worn the day before, it had a skirt that flared out but had a flower pattern and a different neckline.

I felt like an entirely different person with a completely different hair colour and hair style and while wearing a dress. It was oddly liberating. I also didn’t feel like my writing was a waste of time any more, not now I was writing for Deucalion and he seemed to appreciate my writing. Like Kara had done…

“What time is it?” I asked as I walked over to the breakfast bar.  
“I’m not the person to ask,” he said. He then held his left arm out and I realised there was a watch around his wrist.  
“You still wear a watch?”  
“Habit,” he said with a slight shrug.

I held his wrist steady as I read the time from it.  
“It’s half past 11?”  
“It seems so,” he said as he pulled his wrist from my grasp.  
“I slept through the night then,” I smiled. That was a lot better than barely sleeping at all. “That’s good.”  
“I’m glad you slept well.”

I smiled as I made myself breakfast as he drank his tea. He must have already eaten breakfast earlier in the morning. I wasn’t sure if he had done it on purpose but he was wearing another v-neck shirt that was tight around his arms.

“I have to talk to some of my Betas in a minute but I have an idea for the dancing, if you’re open to ideas,” he said before sipping his tea.  
“Open to ideas? It was all your idea anyway,” I said, laughing a little as I sat down to eat. “I’m just following your lead with it.” I smiled at my joke. Dancing had a leader and a follower and I was most certainly the follower in the actual dancing too.  
“Alright then.”

“Don’t I get to know what the idea is?” I asked between mouthfuls of cereal.  
He smirked as he stood. “You’ll find out later.”  
I frowned and sighed, watching as he pressed the button for the elevator. “Fine,” I muttered. “It better be a good idea.”  
“It will be.”  
“Promise?” I asked.  
He chuckled. “I promise.”

He stepped into the elevator and the doors shut. I finished my cereal and rushed to put it in the dishwasher. I didn’t feel like dealing with his Betas, not after the experience with the Alphas so I grabbed the notebook and pen and headed to the bedroom to write in there.

When I heard the lift move downwards, I knew the Betas must have left. It was safe for me to leave. It was likely safe for me to leave anyway since Deucalion was their Alpha, they followed his orders.

He looked a little tense as he headed outside to the balcony. After setting the notebook and pen on the table, so that I could write later, I headed outside. The wind blew my dress a little as I walked over to him.  
“Is everything alright?” I asked.  
“Becca’s dead,” he stated.  
“Oh.”

Becca was the one who had brought me clothes. It didn’t feel as though she had liked my presence but she also didn’t seem to want to murder me which was always a positive.  
“She’s dead,” he said. “They’re certain it was the hunters, your father most likely.”  
“And… was it?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the answer to that question.  
“No,” he said. There was a coldness in his voice I hadn’t heard before. “I did.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“You killed her?” I stuttered.  
“She wasn’t the first to deem me unfit for command due to blindness and an apparent weak spot for a hunter,” he said as he stared out across the city. “The others aren’t happy about her death.”  
“Me?” Becca had thought him weak partially because of me.

“She thought I should have clawed your throat out where you stood or at least taken up your offer of blinding you.”  
“But you didn’t,” I said quietly as I stepped towards him.  
“No, I didn’t, otherwise you wouldn’t be standing there talking to me,” he said. He let out a sigh. “Marco was my second in command and he thought I was unfit and tried to kill me after Dr. Deaton revealed I would remain blind. I had trust in him and he attacked me.”

I wasn’t sure what to do or say. He was clearly upset but I had never had to deal with this before. I supposed it didn’t really change too much, I had known he had killed people before. Chris had killed people and it had never changed how close we were as siblings. I saw no reason why this would change anything with Deucalion.

“Deuc…” Pushing my nerves away, I walked over to him. “It was self-defence and I… I’d rather have you here than Marco or Becca as a new Alpha.” He smiled slightly and then it melted away.  
“Now I’ve lost five Betas, three to Gerard Argent and two in self-defence,” he said bitterly. Deucalion said Gerard Argent with such venom in his voice, his real hatred and anger towards him was clear. “And I should feel weaker. But after killing Marco and killing Becca… I don’t.”

“You don’t?” I asked as I put my hand over his. He was holding onto the railings far too tightly, I was worried he would break them. When an Alpha lost a member of the pack, they usually felt weaker.  
“I feel stronger,” he said. “As if I’ve absorbed their power.”  
“I’ve never heard of that before,” I said honestly.  
“Neither have I,” he said.

His hand let go of the railing and took my hand.  
“I need a distraction,” he said.  
“What about that idea earlier?” I suggested. He smiled and nodded.  
“And we’re already in the right place,” he said softly, completely contrasting his anger towards his Betas and my father.  
“What do you mean?”

“We can dance out here,” he said as he placed his hand on my back. I took his other hand and rested my left hand on his arm.  
“Sounds like a wonderful idea,” I said, smiling at him. The smile just wouldn’t disappear, despite what he had just told me. Distracting him seemed like the best thing I could do and the only thing I could do to help.


	19. Dix-Neuf

The night air was cool against my skin as I muttered a name to myself. The moon was closer to a full moon than a new moon. It must have been a new moon when I was stuck inside at home. I was fairly sure it was called a waxing gibbous now. It had been a few days since Deucalion had told me about Becca and what he had done in self defence.

Looking down, I could barely make out the shapes of the tiny cars in the car park. They were so far down. Up here, I felt like I was on top of the world, I'd never lived so high up.

“I hope you're not going to do anything stupid.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. Those kinds of thoughts hadn't even crossed my mind. “I'm not.”  
“Good,” Deucalion said. I could feel my heart pounding against my ribs. It had been doing that a lot lately, and mostly when he was around.

Glancing over to him, I realised he was walking towards me. He was still wearing the same soft sweater as earlier. Staring back out at the vast darkness of space, I let out a sigh.  
“I used to love watching the stars as a kid,” I told him. “I haven't stopped to just look at them in a while, I do watch the sun set sometimes.”

“I think you should come back inside, you don't seem yourself.”

I shivered as his breath tickled my ear and his arms wrapped around my waist.  
“I’m not going to jump off,” I said. Was that what he was worried about? Admittedly, I was a bit anxious, lonely and maybe a little scared, but not because I wanted to jump off.  
“I know,” he whispered. He rested his chin on my shoulder and I moved my hands from the rails to his arms which were around my waist.

“Why haven’t you gone to sleep?”  
“I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “Why are you out on the balcony in the early hours of the morning?”  
Chuckling, I smiled and turned to face him, leaning against the railing. “I couldn’t sleep.” Deuc pulled me closer to him, so my back wasn't on the railing. It did seem like he was scared I was going to try to jump. My eyes drifted to his lips and then back to his eyes.

I knew how I was feeling, I had felt it before. With other partners, other people. But none of those people were him.

“Why couldn't you sleep?” I asked quietly.  
“I was thinking,” he said vaguely.  
“About?”  
“You,” he said. I wasn’t sure what to say to that. “You keep ending up in my thoughts, Liza.”  
“Should I feel honoured?” I asked with an awkward laugh. But one of the reasons I hadn't gone back to sleep was because I couldn't stop thinking of him. “I've been thinking about you too.”  
“Should I feel honoured?” he asked, repeating what I had said earlier.

I smiled. “I was thinking about us.” He hummed in acknowledgement. “I want there to be something… definite for us. I want this to be something proper.”  
“Something proper?”  
“I want to date you, I want to go on a date with you and do all of that because I like you,” I said as I lifted my hands to cup his face.  
“I know,” he said softly. “Your heart races when I'm near you.” My cheeks turned red and I was glad it was dark. One of his hands moved up to my exposed shoulder blades and I shivered.  
“So do you want to date me?” Biting my lip, I could only hope for a yes.

“I'd love to,” he said. He was smiling and I felt a wave of relief rush over me. “When's the first date?”  
I grinned. “I had an idea for that,” I told him. I wanted to go back to my favourite spot to watch the sun set, near the forest. “But I want to keep it secret. And I don't mind what day, It doesn't need to be a specific day.”  
“How about two days from now?” he asked and I immediately agreed.  
“That sounds good.”

“What also sounds good is you coming inside, you're cold,” he said as he took my hands and started walking backwards towards the door. I didn't feel that cold. “And I don't think you're wearing much.” I was in a nightgown so no, I guessed I wasn't wearing much.  
“I should probably go inside, shouldn't I?”  
“Yes,” he said as he gently pulled me towards the door to go back inside.  
“I'm sorry,” I whispered. He was concerned. “I didn't mean to worry you, I really just couldn't sleep.”

I followed him back inside and shut the door to the balcony behind me. I apologised as I shivered. There were goosebumps on my arms and I rubbed them with my hands to try to warm myself up.  
“Liza, it's alright.” Deuc squeezed my hands. “You're tired, go and get some sleep.”  
“I should,” I said. I tried to refrain from yawning as I nodded. Guilt still gnawed at me for worrying him. “I just needed to think, that's all.”

He said nothing and just stepped forwards.   
“I'm not using Argent as my last name, I'm not a hunter,” I said. It still felt a little weird saying that. “All of the Argents are hunters.”  
“You want to change your name?”  
“I don’t know if I can be bothered to do it legally,” I said with a shrug. “But it sort of feels like I shouldn’t have that last name.”

“What name are you going to use then?” he asked as he wrapped his arms around me again. I was thankful, I was now well aware of how cold I was.  
I laughed a little. “Well, I did some research and I’ve decided on the surname Blakesley.”  
He hummed. “Why that name?”  
“It comes from a village in Northamptonshire, England,” I explained with a smile on his face. I was sure he was going to like the name. “It means black wolf or most accurately, black wolf’s wood.”

“Liza Blakesley,” Deuc said, testing out the name as I had on the balcony. He chuckled. “I rather like the sound of that, Miss Blakesley, but I think you should sleep.”  
Reluctantly, I nodded in agreement. “You should too.” It didn’t even look like he had tried to sleep.  
“Yes, I should,” he said. I could feel my heart beat a little faster as I looked up at him.  
“I’d rather not be alone tonight,” I admitted. “I just feel a bit lonely and I don’t want to overthink things.”

Deucalion said nothing for a moment and then hummed. “Then you can sleep in my room.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“Yes, if it helps,” he said. He was standing rather close and I was tempted to just run my hands through his hair and kiss him. Instead, I smiled. “Now if you don’t move, I’ll pick you up.”  
“No, don’t pick me up,” I said quickly, giggling a little. “I can walk.”

As I looked at him, I felt happy. Leaving had made me happier. And this man was nothing like what Dad had said he would be like. I was glad for it.


	20. Vingt

Opening my eyes, the sight of a sleeping Deucalion greeted me. He looked calm and I smiled. Even though I had just woken up, there was a pit of anxiety ever deepening inside of me. Slowly, I moved to the edge of his bed and sat there for a moment. As soon as my foot touched the ground, a floorboard underneath the carpet creaked and I winced.

“What are you doing?”

I’d woken him up.

But I couldn’t answer him.

“You’re still anxious, lie back down.”

I looked over my shoulder at him, he was lying on his back with his hands clasped and resting on his bare chest. I looked to the door and then lay back down next to him. He took my hand as I stared up at the ceiling.

“Liza, have you had a breakdown before?”  
“Not… not since high school,” I admitted. A bad breakup combined with dropping grades and hunter training did not create a stress-free environment. “I’m fairly sure I’m in the middle of one though.”  
“Maybe,” he said.

Rolling my head to the side, I looked at him. His hair was messy but it was somewhat endearing.  
“You were really scared last night,” I said. While some bits were patchy, I could generally remember what had happened and I had been acting a little weird. “I’m sorry.”  
“It’s alright,” he said. It didn’t feel alright. “But if you need to talk to me, you can.”  
“I wouldn’t even know what to talk about,” I told him. He knew everything anyway. “I mean, you were right though. Being a hunter made me unhappy. And now I’ve stopped, I’m having a breakdown because… I just don’t know what to do now. I guess I never thought I’d get this far.”

“What do you want to do?” he asked. I shrugged and shook my head.  
“I don’t know.” Writing didn’t really seem like a viable career and I wasn’t very good at sticking to 9-5 jobs.  
“What do you enjoy doing?”  
“Writing,” I said without hesitation. I had wanted to do it for years, the ideas just… never really went anywhere. “But that doesn't pay enough to live.”

“I asked what you enjoyed, not if it pays enough,” he said. He gently squeezed my hand and I took a deep breath.  
“I know, I just…” I shuffled a little closer to him, our shoulders touching. “I would like to write.”  
“Then we'll make it a viable option,” he said. As if it was just that easy, I wished it was that easy. “Send your writing to agents, get you a publisher and do it that way, not just magazines.”

“Do you think I can do that?” I asked. I had turned to magazines when I had been told that my stories weren't what publishers were looking for.  
“I think you can do that whatever you want to,” he said. He sighed. “I think you don't believe that you do those things.”  
“I haven't managed to do it before, I've been rejected so many times.”

“Liza, can you do me a favour?” he asked suddenly as he sat up. Was he trying to change the topic? He let go of my hand and it felt weird lying down while he was sitting up. So I pushed myself up and shuffled back. He was still taller than me even while sitting down.  
“What is it?” Even if he was trying to change the topic, I was curious.

“Promise me you’ll keep trying to publish your writing, it's wonderful and good,” he said. I stuttered and gave up trying to speak for a moment.  
“You're biased,” I tried to argue. He was. He liked me, didn't he? And that meant he was biased. The publishers didn’t know me, they wouldn’t sit and listen to me read and hear my emotions pour out into the words.

“No, I'm honest. I will believe in you until you can believe in yourself and then I will continue believing in you, Liza.”

“Deuc…” I struggled to find words. Was that the problem? I wasn’t sure. And it hit me how close we were, almost as close as when I had first properly seen him...  
“Promise me,” he said as he turned his head. His eyes were glowing, he was looking at me. I nodded.  
“I promise,” I whispered and he smiled and I smiled back. “I’ll keep trying to publish my stories.”  
“Good,” he said quietly as his fingers interlaced with mine.

His other hand brushed across my cheek as he tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear, he was still looking at me, as well as he could. My eyes drifted to his lips and my heart was racing. I twisted my body so I was facing him properly. My eyes wandered to his lips again and I somehow knew he had seen this time.

His lips were soft against mine and there wasn’t a moment of hesitation as I kissed back. Closing my eyes, I savoured every moment of it. His fingers tangled in my hair, my free hand moved to his shoulder. There was only one thought in my mind; I had wanted this for a while and now it was happening.

His hand moved to my back and he pulled me closer despite the kiss ending. My tongue ran across my lips.  
“I want to do that again,” My voice was barely above a whisper. His fingers played with the hem of my nightgown.  
“Kiss me.” He did not have to repeat himself as I did as he commanded. And it was as beautiful as the first time.

“I could stay here forever with you,” I said. I twisted so I could rest my head on his shoulder.  
“Why do you say that?” he asked. I smiled to myself.  
“Because I'd be happy,” I said. His arm wrapped around me, his hand resting on my back. “I feel safe when I'm with you, I don't feel alone.”  
“I could kiss you but I don't think I'd stop,” he admitted quietly. I moved again so I was kneeling, with one knee between his legs. There was a spark ignited inside of me.  
“I'm not going to stop you,” I said as I wrapped my arms around his neck. “And I don't think anyone else gets an opinion on it.” He smiled as he pulled me towards him.  
“No, just us.”

I smiled. There was just us.


	21. Vingt Et Un

Deucalion waited by the breakfast bar as his Beta was taking the elevator. They had pressed the buzzer and had asked to talk to Deuc for a vague reason. I sat on the couch, writing, with a smile that was now pretty much permanently on my face.

The elevator doors opened and Deuc turned to face the Beta. She was tall with her hair pulled back into a bun and out of curiosity, I set down the pen and watched.  
“Natasha, you wanted to talk?”  
“I wanted to talk earlier but you weren’t replying,” she said coldly. She glanced at me and narrowed her eyes.  
“I was busy earlier,” he said vaguely and I turned away from them.  
“Busy?” she asked. “Doing what?”

Deuc didn’t answer so I stood and answered.  
“Dancing,” I told her.  
“Dancing?” she repeated, crossing her arms.  
“Yes, dancing,” I said. This was sort of terrifying and she probably knew that. “It’s a little difficult to hear the buzzer over the music, especially when you’re focused on something completely different.”

There was a smirk on Deucalion’s face and Tasha did not look happy as she walked over to him.  
“She’s an Argent, Deuc,” she whispered, but not very quietly. “You can’t be serious about this, can you? Even if you turn her, she’ll have to kill herself before she turns.”  
“She has never killed one of us, Tasha,” he said calmly, despite her clear aggression.  
“The don’t differentiate between packs, you’ve said it before.”  
“They don't usually, no,” he said. “But it's good that she's not a hunter.”  
“What?” Tasha looked at me and I just stared back. “All of the Argent are hunters.”

“It's good that she's not an Argent either,” he said. Her head whipped back round to face him. I just nervously reached forward to grab my cup of tea that was on the coffee table. “Her last name's Blakesley.”  
“Blakesley?” she repeated, raising her eyebrows.  
“Yes, did you know it means black wolf's wood?” he said, patiently waiting for his Beta's reaction.  
“Fitting, I guess,” she said coldly, her eyes flickering to me again.

“Look, I get that she looks all sweet and innocent and everything but she’s a hunter.”  
“Sweet, yes. Innocent…” he trailed off and it took everything in me not to spit out the tea I was drinking. “She’s not a hunter.”  
“I’ve seen her shoot at Jack before, she’s shot at people in Ennis’ pack too. I don’t think she should be here,” she argued.  
“That’s my decision.”  
“You can’t trust her! She’s… she’s probably tricking you like Gerard, we should have done to her what they did to Ennis’ Beta.”

“Tasha, could you please at least be civil with my guest?” he scolded. She scoffed and his eyes glowed red as he stepped towards her. She bowed her head and muttered something. “Your apology is directed at the wrong person.” She then turned to me and lifted her head to look at me.  
“I'm sorry for being rude to you.”  
“You could at least pretend to mean it,” he said.   
“No, it's okay,” I said quickly. They already hated me as a hunter, they didn't need any extra reasons. “You don't really have any reason to trust me.”

Tasha turned back to Deucalion who said nothing for a while.  
“Is there anything else?” he asked with a sigh.  
“We wanted to know when we'd be headed back home,” she said. “And Jack called to say that a wendigo was found murdered last night.”  
His brow furrowed. “A wendigo? I didn't think there were any left by us.”  
“We didn’t think so either but one got murdered, in their home too.”  
Deucalion hummed. “We’ll have to keep an eye on that then.”

“When are you leaving?” I asked. If he was leaving this place, I might need to find a place of my own to stay and for that I'd need a job.  
“A week or so, maybe a little longer. It depends,” he said. “There might still be things here that need to be taken care of.” I wondered what sort of things needed to be taken care of. Presumably things of a supernatural nature, those were the only things I could think of. Maybe he had to meet with the other Alphas again.

Tasha glanced at me, it was more nervous than filled with hate.  
“Is that everything, Tasha?” he asked. His head tilted to the side slightly, almost like he was bored.  
“I’m worried,” she said. “That you’ll struggle to fight if anything happens.”  
“I managed with Marco,” he said, a thin smile on his lips. “And I should be fine seeing as the hunters don’t seem too bothered at the moment.”  
“They might think you’re weak,” she protested.  
“Then I’ll show them I’m not,” he said with a sigh. “It is just that easy.” She seemed hesitant to accept that answer but nodded.  
“Okay,” she said. “I should get going.”

She said goodbye to Deucalion and he half-heartedly responded with his own goodbye. Unsure of what to do, I just stayed silent and waited for her to leave.

Once the elevator doors shut and we heard it moving, I looked back to Deucalion.  
“So you were going to leave in a week or so?” I asked quietly.  
“Yes,” he said. “I was going to ask if you’d like to come with me.”  
“You were?” I asked, furrowing my brow. Was he doing that because I had found out through the conversation instead of him telling me.  
“Yes, it’s going to be hard to go on dates if we're in different states,” he said casually.

My eyes widened, he was planning on more than one date already? I mean, I had hoped we’d go on more but our first date was tomorrow and I sort of wanted to take it one at a time.  
“Deuc… I… I can’t just live with you, I don’t pay anything towards rent or anything at all and I’d just feel bad and-”  
“Liza,” he cut me off but was smiling. “It’s alright, I’m not exactly struggling to pay for anything.” Considering the fact that I was standing in a penthouse apartment, he had a point.

“Also, dancing?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.  
I laughed a little. He was changing the topic but I didn’t mind too much. “Well, you weren’t saying anything.”  
“Do you realise dancing could suggest something a little more…” He cleared his throat. “Sexual. It’s a rather common euphemism in music.”  
My cheeks heated up a little as I walked over to him. “It’s sort of not wrong then.”  
He chuckled. “It’s amusing only because you’re not wrong.”


	22. Vingt-Deux

I was practically shaking with excitement as I ate breakfast. I was also certain that he knew exactly how I was feeling. I was planning on changing into a dress later, my favourite one. It was a red, off the shoulder dress with a skirt that flared out when I twirled.

“So, when are we going on this date then?” he asked as he sat next to me.  
“Later, when it starts to get dark,” I said with a smile on my face. The one thing I hadn’t accounted for was a way to play music. “Do you have something to play music on?”  
“I don’t know.”  
I shrugged. “A Walkman or mp3 player or something?” I used to have a Walkman but I gave it to Kara when hers had broken.

“I have a Walkman somewhere in my room, I think. I’d have to find it,” he said. “Is it for the date?”  
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “Or maybe I want to listen to music without you hearing.”  
“If I really wanted to listen, I could,” he pointed out. Sighing, I remembered that the perks of being a werewolf included better hearing.  
“Okay, yes, it's for the date,” I admitted. He smiled and I just shook my head.

“Would you like a cup of tea?” I asked as I stood up.  
“If you don't mind,” he said with a smile.  
“Of course I don't,” I said as I pressed the button on the kettle to make it boil. “You know, I'm fairly sure you've managed to convert me from a coffee drinker to a tea drinker.” I hadn't wanted a cup of coffee at all recently, even when I was at home it didn't bother me too much.  
“Good, it's much better,” he said as I grabbed two cups.

“I still like coffee,” I said. “I just… haven't really drunk it like I used to for the last two or three weeks.”  
“Is it because you started drinking tea and realised it's superior?” he asked with a smug smirk on his face but I wasn't letting him have the satisfaction of winning.  
“No, it's probably just because you only have tea.”  
“And I only have tea because I like tea and I don’t like coffee, it’s too bitter,” he said.  
“I suppose you only like sweet things then,” I said, grinning to myself as I carried on making the cups of tea.  
“You could say that, yes,” he said. Glancing behind me, I could see he was smiling and I laughed a little.

After drinking tea, the day went as it usually did, dancing, writing and reading to Deucalion. I had helped Deuc find the Walkman in his room. I didn’t mind the general repetitiveness of the day, it was fun. When it was almost time for us to leave, I excused myself from listening to the Beatles with him to change into the nicer dress I had decided on earlier.

I was fairly sure there wasn’t a word to describe how I was feeling when I stood in the guest room. There was definitely some anxiety but after yesterday, I knew there was probably nothing to worry about. Excited felt like an understatement and I was fairly sure I had enough energy to run a marathon.

Grabbing two of the tapes I had brought with me, I put one in the Walkman and put the other one into my jacket pocket. We had put new batteries in it earlier so it should last long enough for us to listen to a few albums. I grabbed my earphones and sighed as I realised that I had left my earphone splitter at Kara’s house weeks ago and hadn’t remembered to get it back. I guessed I would never get it back now. We would just have to share the earphones the normal way.

Before leaving the room, I put on my boots and took a deep breath. As I turned, I saw him waiting by the elevator in a light blue button up shirt and trousers.  
“You look…” I trailed off as I walked over to him.  
“Is it really that bad?”  
I laughed. “No, you look good, I just don’t think good is well, good enough,” I said. He chuckled and pressed to button for the elevator.

“I’m sure you look as beautiful as always,” he said and I smiled. If he could see me, I would be as red as the dress I was wearing.  
“You’re being far too nice,” I said, laughing a little.  
“Really?” he asked. “I thought you would have wanted more compliments.”  
“Well, I never told you to stop.”

The elevator doors opened and we stepped inside. I pressed the button for the ground floor before putting the earphones in the Walkman.  
“So… what are we doing?” he asked. He was smiling and I put the left earbud in his hand.  
“That’s for you,” I said. I waited for him to put it in before putting the right one in my right ear. “And we’re going to walk to one of my favourite places.”

As the lift slowed down, I pressed play. His hand held mine as we left the apartment building.  
“Queen? I’m not surprised,” he said as we walked along the street. Since I had taken walks with Kara, I was sure to point out where the edge of the paths were and if there was anything to avoid.  
“You don’t hate it or anything do you? This might be an important factor,” I said, trying to sound as serious as I could but I couldn’t manage it. I could never dislike him over something like music.  
“It’s good that I like Queen then, isn’t it?” he said with a smile on his face.  
“It is indeed,” I replied, only for the earphone to fall out and I scrambled to put it in my ear again.

“So why is it your favourite place?” he asked after we crossed a road.  
“When I first came to Beacon Hills, I was in high school and I just hated being around so many people I didn’t know. I ended up finding this little secluded spot to hide away from everyone, including my family.”  
“Do you not deal well with people?” he asked.  
“No, I can deal with people, I’m apparently good at being social, I just… everyone needs a break sometimes and when I needed a break, I ended up there,” I explained. The sun was starting to set but we weren’t far from the spot.

It was at the edge of the forest and looked over a fair bit of Beacon Hills. We stood for a while in silence and I looked out, watching the sunset.  
“You know, the last time I was here was before I came to you. I wanted to watch the sun set in case I wasn’t going to be able to afterwards,” I told him before resting my head on his shoulder. “I know you can’t really see it, but it’s beautiful. The blue just sort of melts into purple and pink and orange. The clouds have the sort of red glow and it’s really pretty. I wish you could see it properly.”

“Keep describing it then,” he said as he squeezed my hand.  
“You can see most of Beacon Hills from here. The street lights and the windows are slowly lighting up, one by one. They’re like man-made stars, slowly appearing. You can’t see the real stars yet, it’s not quite dark enough. The road here’s quiet too, not many people come here. It’s lovely.”  
“It’s probably not as lovely as you.”

Chuckling, I lifted my head off shoulder to look at him. He was smiling.  
“I was wondering if we could dance here,” I said. This part was grassy and there wasn’t anything to fall over.  
“Of course we can, Liza.” He paused the music since the Walkman was in his pocket, my pockets weren’t big enough. He moved to face me and then his smile faded. “I think I can hear something.!

Turning around, I glanced into the forest but I couldn’t see anything or anyone.  
“Are you sure?” I asked quietly, furrowing my brow. He said nothing and closed his eyes.  
“There’s someone here,” he whispered and I tried to see if there was anyone there. It was difficult, the forest was dark and there were no street lights.  
“Deuc, maybe we should-”

There was a searing pain in my shoulder and I felt tears in my eyes as a crossbow bolt stuck out of me.


	23. Vingt-Trois

“Liza?”

Another arrow was sticking out of my stomach.

A whimper of pain escaped my mouth and he turned me so I faced him. His eyes were glowing and I watched as he shifted in front of me. His head snapped towards someone standing in the trees and he sprinted at them.

“Don’t!” I yelled after him. There was a metallic taste in my mouth. “Don’t kill them!” I tried to stumble after him but my heart was pounding and I felt as if everything was spinning.  
“Gerard Argent,” I heard Deuc snarl. There were shadows at the edge of the forest, it looked like he was holding Dad by the throat.

Had Dad shot me? Twice?

“Deuc!”  
“Your own daughter? You shot your own daughter?” he barked, throwing him onto the grass in front of me.  
“Please, don’t kill him,” I croaked, wincing as I tried to lift my arm. He stood over my father with his foot on Dad’s chest. I couldn’t watch him kill my father in front of my eyes. “Deuc, please.” He turned to me, eyes glowing and I hoped he listened. He stared down at my father, standing over him.

“The next time we meet, I will rip your eyes from your head, feed them to you and torture you until you beg for death,” he growled. His claws dug into my father’s chest before he turned to me. I just stared at Deuc, if I moved I was sure to fall over.

He broke the shaft of the arrows and tossed the parts that weren't sticking in me at my father, he hadn’t bothered trying to get up. I whimpered and out of the corner of my eye, saw Chris’ car pull up. He got out of the car and looked between us. Then, he rushed to Dad. I couldn’t blame him, I had abandoned them.

Deuc picked me up and I clung to him with the arm I could move without anything hurting.  
“Liza, it’s going to be alright,” he whispered, his voice was deeper and I could feel his claws as he carried me.  
“Where are we going?” I asked weakly.  
“To get help.”

Groaning, I could hear voices. I must have passed out. Everything generally hurt.  
“I’ll be in the waiting room.” That was a female voice, it sounded vaguely familiar. A door shut.

“This isn’t looking good, she should have been taken to a hospital.” I didn’t recognise that voice. My stomach was churning and I kept my eyes closed.  
“Her father is still her next of kin, I can’t risk taking her there.” Deuc.  
“Why?” Whatever I was lying on was cold and hard. “Her father should probably be there.”  
“Her father is Gerard Argent and he’s the one who shot her.” It sounded like he was talking through gritted teeth.  
“I see.”

“She can hear us,” said Deucalion. Reluctantly, I opened my eyes. There was a light shining down on me and I turned my head. Deucalion was standing near me. “Liza?”  
“Deuc, where am I?”  
“Dr. Deaton’s animal clinic, I didn’t want to take you to the hospital,” he said as he took my hand. Black lines slowly appeared and my pain faded a little, as if it was being pulled away. He had said Dad would probably be there, that was why I wasn't at the hospital.  
“Dad?” He nodded in response.

“He actually shot me,” I whispered and he nodded again. “Dad… I don’t get why.”  
“I don’t know,” he said softly. I could hear a door shutting and Deucalion turned his head. The door to where we were creaked open and I lifted my head slightly.

“Chris?”

His eyes widened as he looked at me, I probably looked rather horrific after being shot with two arrows.  
“Elizabeth, are you…?” he trailed off as he rushed over and looked at the wounds. “Is she going to be alright?” I could hear a heavy intake of breath and Deucalion squeezed my hand.  
“It isn’t a positive outlook, to say the least.”

“Chris, what are you doing here?” I asked, looking up at him. He glanced at Deuc before looking back at me. Deuc had let go of my hand and had stepped away from the table I was on.  
“I was worried for you,” he said. “Did…?”  
“You father did it, yes,” snapped Deuc. I wished he wouldn’t, now was not the time to start arguments.  
Chris swallowed. “I’ll wait outside.”

Reluctantly, Chris headed to the door and I turned my head to look at Deuc.  
“Am I dying?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the answer.  
“Not at the moment,” said Dr. Deaton. “But if we take the arrows out, you’re likely to bleed to death. We don’t know what the arrowheads look like either, it might do more harm than good.”

Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to recall what Dad’s arrows were, he always liked a certain type of them for consistency and he claimed they were the best to hurt werewolves with because of how awkward they were to pull out.  
“They’re usually barbed, because they’re horrible to pull out,” I told them as I opened my eyes again. Deaton sighed and I watched Deucalion lower his head. “That’s not good, is it?”  
“No,” said Deaton. “It’s not.”

The blunt honesty hurt but no more than the knowledge that my father had shot me.

“If she was at a hospital, this would be much easier.”  
“No,” I said quickly. Deucalion was right, Dad would likely be there since he was still my next of kin and had control over any medical operations or treatments while I was out. “No, I can’t go there, Dad will be there. He’d know that he's my next of kin.”  
“There isn’t much I can do, I’m afraid.”

Taking a deep breath, I reached out with my arm for Deuc. Everything was blurry for a moment and I thought I was going to throw up.  
“Deuc…” He stepped forward and took my arm. And then he kneeled. “Don’t let me die, please don’t let me die.” If I could get on my knees to beg, I would but that wasn’t currently possible. He closed his eyes for a moment and I could feel his breath on my hand.  
“Liza,” he said softly. “Are you sure?”

I had the feeling I knew what was going to happen.

“Don’t let me die.”

He lifted my wrist and I squeezed my eyes shut as his teeth sunk into the flesh of my wrist.


	24. Vingt-Quatre

“Was this really the right decision?” That was the female voice from earlier.  
“It was the only decision I could have made, I wasn’t letting her die.”  
“She’s an Argent, Deucalion. She’ll follow the code on what she has to do,” she said.  
“She’s not a hunter, she doesn’t go by the name Argent,” he said. “And you didn’t hear her, Talia. You didn’t hear her.”

Talia Hale.

“Deuc?” I whispered as I opened my eyes. It was weird, I couldn’t feel arrows in my stomach and shoulder, there wasn’t any pain either. Pushing myself up, I saw Talia Hale staring at me and Deucalion stood to the side. “The Bite took then?”  
“It seems so,” he said quietly. I smiled as I turned and pushed myself off of the table. My feet hit the ground and I took a moment to make sure I didn’t lose my balance.  
“I’m not dead.”  
“You’re not.”

Unsure of what to do, I pulled him into a hug. His arms wrapped around me.  
“Thank you,” I whispered. There was going to be a lot of differences now, I was dreading the first full moon, but I was alive. “Is Chris still here?”  
“Yes, he’s still in the waiting room,” said Talia. Turning to her, I smiled as a thanks and then spotted Dr. Deaton.  
“Thank you, Dr. Deaton,” I said. I wasn't sure what else to say to him, I didn’t really know him. Perhaps I could send him a bouquet of flowers or something as a thank you.

Heading to the door, I took a deep breath and pulled it open. Chris was sitting in the waiting room, wringing his hands. Turning to the door he smiled.  
“Hey,” I said with a smile. He pulled me into a hug and then pulled away as something hit him.  
“Elizabeth…” I knew what he was thinking. There weren’t any open wounds any more.  
“I know,” I said quietly.

The door shut behind me and Deucalion stood there. Chris glanced at him before looking back at me.  
“What do I tell him?” he asked. What did he tell Dad? If Dad knew I was a werewolf, he would hunt me down.  
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “He’ll try to shoot me again, Chris.”  
“I know,” he said with a sigh.

Then, I had an idea. It likely wasn’t a good idea but it was the only idea I had and no one else seemed to be saying anything. Biting my lip, I figured it was better than nothing.  
“Tell him I’m dead,” I said. Chris furrowed his brow. “He won’t look for me then.”  
“And your body?” he asked. “What if he wants to see it?”  
“Tell him Deucalion’s pack buried me or something,” I said with a shrug. I didn’t know how else to explain that. “Just tell him I bled out when they tried to take the arrows out. They were barbed, I would have bled out if not for...” I didn’t have to explain any more.

Chris sighed but nodded and I looked away. This wasn’t a situation I had ever imagined and I hated it.  
“I’ll tell him that then,” he said. “I’ll have to tell Victoria and Allison too, and Kate.” Kate probably wouldn’t be too bothered, I hadn’t talked to her properly in years, most of our conversations were just awkward, tense and a precursor to arguments.  
“Thank you,” I said. I hugged my brother one last time, I likely wouldn’t be able to again.

I felt Deucalion’s hand on my shoulder and I watched Chris leave the animal clinic. I turned to look at him.  
“We should go,” he said and I nodded.  
“Yeah, we should,” I said. Looking down, my dress was barely holding together. “Can I borrow your jacket? My dress is sort of… well, it’s not looking too good.” He said nothing as he took his jacket off and held it out to me.

The jacket was too big for me but I zipped it up and walked along the street. I held his hand as we headed back to the penthouse, we didn’t talk much.

As soon as I stepped into the penthouse, I handed his jacket back to him before heading to the guest room. I took the dress off, there was no fixing it. And tears welled up in my eyes. I took a shower before putting on pajamas.

Staring at the empty room with the towel wrapped around my shoulders, I sighed. I couldn’t be alone, not right now. Heading out of the room, I spotted Deuc on the sofa. Once I had thrown the dress in the bin and put the towel in the utility room to be washed, I sat down next to him.

There weren’t any emotions, it just felt like a void slowly engulfing me. I held my head in my hands, damp hair falling in my face. It sounded like he was going to say something but decided against it.  
“Dad almost killed me,” I whispered as I lifted my head and looked at him. He was still wearing the button up shirt, except there were stains on it. It was my blood staining his shirt. “He actually tried to kill me. I would have died.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.” His voice was soft and I shuffled over and sat next to him.  
“But… fathers are supposed to protect you, right? So how could he…? Why did he…?” There were tears on my cheeks and he pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me and just holding me as I sobbed. Looking at his eyes, and the damage that my father had done, I realised something.

“He’s a psychopath,” I mumbled. He had to be. No sane person would try to kill their own daughter. “All of this… your eyes, Kara’s dad, and tonight… he doesn’t care, does he?”  
“No. He doesn't.”  
“How am I supposed to call him my father?” I asked. His thumb wiped away some of my tears.  
“You don’t have to,” he said softly. I supposed I didn’t but he was the reason I existed, the reason why I was sitting with Deucalion right now. I rested my head on his chest.

“But he…” I took a shaky breath. “He wanted me dead. You were supposed to be my enemy and you’re not. You’re the exact opposite and he… he was supposed to be the one who protected me and everyone else. And all he’s done is hurt people.”  
“He’s already disowned you,” said Deuc as he pushed my hair out of my face and shakily tucked it behind my ear.

Gerard Argent had done nothing but hurt people, being family didn’t make any difference.

“I won’t call him Dad now, not after all of this. I can’t.”


	25. Vingt-Cinq

When I woke up, I immediately wished I had never slept. My eyes were sore and every part of me yearned for sleep. I had no idea what time it was and with a sigh, I closed my eyes. If there was any time to have a coffee, it was now.

“You should go back to sleep.”

His voice was gruff and I smiled. I wasn’t alone.  
“So should you,” I replied. His hand snaked around my waist. “Why aren’t you asleep?” Thinking about it, he always seemed to go to sleep after me and wake up around the same time as me.  
“I was thinking, there’s a full moon in a few days.” As soon as he said it, there was a flicker of anxiety. He must have sensed it. “Yes, exactly.”

“How am I going to deal with it?” I asked. The mere thought of losing control and hurting people scared me.  
“You need an anchor,” he explained. “Something that ties you to humanity.” Something that tied me to humanity… Well, it definitely would not be my family. As much as I loved Chris, our sibling relationship didn’t really scream at me as something special.  
“Like what?” I asked.  
“Well, Tasha and Jack use their relationship together, Becca used to think of food, I can’t remember exactly what food but it worked.”

I rolled over and faced him.  
“What’s your anchor?” I wondered if it was a person, if it was family or someone he loved.  
“It doesn’t matter,” he said dismissively. “What does matter is your anchor, what ties you to humanity?”  
I blankly stared at him, glad he couldn't see my expression. “I have no idea.”  
“You don't need to worry about it,” he said.

But I probably would anyway. Without an anchor, I wouldn't be in control of my shifting. When the full moon happened, I'd be dangerous, especially since it would be the first full moon as a werewolf. Unless I followed the code, then I wouldn't have to deal with it. But then I'd be dead and that was what I was hoping to avoid.

“You don't have to discover your anchor now,” he said. Deuc could probably tell how I was feeling. “You live with your Alpha and I won't let you hurt anyone.”  
“I know you won't.” I rolled onto my back and then sat up. Last time I had slept here, I hadn't paid too much attention to the room itself. Deucalion had been rather good at distracting me.

There was a bookcase beside his wardrobe filled with books, some of them looked decades old with leather bindings. Some had gold lettering on the spines, some were blank with their spines falling to pieces.  
“You have so many books.”  
“I do, but they're not much use to me now.” Because he couldn't read them.

“You could read Braille,” I said as I shuffled to the end of the bed. Kara had some books in Braille, though she preferred audiobooks.  
“How many books on the supernatural are written in Braille?” he asked with a sigh. I walked over to the bookshelf and looked at the books in awe.  
“I'm guessing not many,” I sheepishly admitted. Assuming the books he had were on the supernatural, the stories and knowledge the books contained was unimaginable. “I could read them and I could read them to you if you wanted or if we needed to.”  
“If you read them, I think it would be a little less tedious,” he said.

Turning, I could see him smiling as he sat up. Part of me just wanted to run my fingers through his hair and let him hold me while I tried to forget about everything. But that wouldn’t happen.  
“I’m surprised you haven’t tried learning to use a white cane.”  
“What?” he asked. I could see his brow furrow.  
“A white cane, it’s specifically for blind people. There’s training for it, it lets you move around and stuff. Kara used to go, she uses it if she has to but she’s not overly fond of it,” I explained. “There’s a special technique and everything, it’d probably be worth learning.”

“You know, this isn’t even all of the books, the rest of them are at home,” he said and I let out a laugh.  
“At home?” My eyebrows raised.  
“I own a house back in my territory, I’m just renting this place,” he said. How did he have the money to do that? “Speechless?”  
“A little, how much money do you have?”  
He chuckled. “Enough to live rather comfortably.” My eyes widened and I shook my head a little. No wonder he didn’t seem bothered by me living here, he didn’t have to worry about money. “Speechless again?”  
“You're getting rather good at that,” I said with a smirk. He chuckled and grinned.  
“I suppose I am.”

Laughing, I turned back to the bookcase and ran my fingers over the spines of the books as I read the lettering on them.  
“These are so old,” I mumbled as I stared at them. How did one even acquire so many old books on supernatural creatures? I wondered if they had the ancient smell that old books tended to have but, terrified of damaging them, I left them alone.

“Come back here, Liza.”  
“Why?”  
“Trust me.” My hand fell to my side and I climbed onto the bed and knelt next to him. He held his hand out.  
“What is it?” I asked. There was a smile on my face as I took his hand.

“You like me, don’t you?” he asked quietly. I furrowed my brow.  
“To say the least, yes,” I said. “And I’m guessing you like me?”  
“I do, yes,” He took a deep breath and held my hand tighter. “You aren’t a hunter any more.”  
“No, I’m not,” I said slowly. I wasn’t sure where this was going.  
“Promise me that you won’t follow your code.”

Was he worried about that?

“It’s not my code,” I said softly. “I have no reason to follow it.” He was serious about this, wasn’t he?  
“Promise me. Promise me you’re not going to kill yourself before the full moon.” I pressed a kiss to his lips. I couldn’t imagine leaving him, not after everything that had happened. I had almost died and he had saved me, none of my thoughts were close to suicide.  
“I promise.”


	26. Vingt-Six

As he pressed the button on the kettle to make it boil, I winced and lifted my hands to cover my ears.  
“That’s loud!” I exclaimed. Immediately, he turned the kettle off. I lowered my hands as he sighed.  
“Enhanced hearing,” he muttered and then it was my turn to sigh. “Try to focus on something else.”  
“Like what?” I asked.  
“I’m not sure,” he said. That was very helpful. I refrained from sighing again and pushed my hair out of my eyes.

I stared at him for a moment and tried to focus on something. But what did I focus on? Deucalion turned to the side and his hand was held out for me. I took it and closed my eyes.  
“Okay, I think I’ll be okay,” I said quietly. As he pressed the button, he gently squeezed my hand and I prepared for my ears to hurt from the noise. I tried to focus on everything but the noise.

Deucalion’s hand was a little rough and he was wearing one of his sweaters again, despite it being quite warm. His sweaters were always soft and always in rather neutral and calming colours. I sort of hoped he would take it off later, maybe I could read to him while we sat on the sofa. Or maybe we could listen to one of my audiobooks later, I had mostly brought ones I hadn’t listened to with me but I had brought my favourites too: The Chronicles of Narnia audiobooks.

“Can you hear me, Liza?” I think he had said something before that but I had no idea what he had said.  
“Huh?” I asked.  
“I think you ignored a little more than just the kettle,” he said before chuckling. “You’ll get used to it, with enough time. And, with even more time, you’ll be able to pick out certain sounds.”

Humming, I let go of his hand and moved to take the cup of tea. It was darker since I didn’t have mine with milk. As I sipped it, it was far too hot but there was only a moment of pain, I had an idea and I set the cup down. If thinking of him could distract me from the pain-inducing loud noises, perhaps he could be my anchor. He had said that Tasha and Jack’s relationship was their anchor. Maybe it would work for me too.

“Maybe I have an anchor,” I said quietly. He smiled as he picked up his cup of tea.  
“That’s good,” Deuc said before drinking.  
“Don’t you want to know what it is?” I asked, furrowing my brow.  
“We have to see if it works first.” He was right, unsurprisingly. “Besides, it might be for the best that it doesn’t work, so you know what it’s like to shift.”

“But if I have an anchor, I’m more in control of that, right?” Being in control of it sounded a lot better than being in an uncontrollable rage with bloodlust.  
“Yes,” he said. He took a gulp of the tea before speaking again. “But I have the feeling that if you are in control, you won’t want to shift, even if you have to.”  
“Okay…?” I said slowly, I think I was misunderstanding. Or completely missing his point entirely.

“If you understand what you are capable of when you shift, you may be more likely to shift when needed to, because you understand how much stronger you’ll be,” he said. His index finger slid around the rim of the cup. “It’s… it’s certainly a feeling, very different from how you are now. It’s more primal, more animalistic. And there’s a certain raw strength that comes with that, and it can be very useful.”

The idea that I would need to use that strength scared me. But there would likely be hunters, hunters that did not have a truce or hunters that simply didn’t care. There were more people like my father - no, like Gerard Argent - than I wanted to admit. It was likely I would have to fight someone. It would happen at some point, it was inevitable.

It was still a strange thought that I was one of the supernatural.

“Do you think this was for the best?” I asked as I leant against the counter. “This is all so complicated. Anchors and enhanced hearing. There’s the whole smelling emotions thing that I’ll have to deal with too and…” His hand rested on my arm and I instantly stopped talking.  
“Yes, I have no doubts about that,” he said firmly, but not harshly. “Yes, this is complex and there is a lot you need to learn and you’ll have to adapt to hearing so much and smelling so much but I have no doubts this was for the best.”

A smile spread across my face. I was glad to be alive and there was no question it was for the best. I supposed it would take some time getting used to things.  
“I’m not a very quick learner,” I told him, feeling a little awkward. It had been why I hadn’t been a great hunter. There was so much to learn and so little time.  
“We’re in no rush.”  
“But the full moon-”  
“Is in three or four days, yes,” he interrupted. Sheepishly, I looked down at the bottom of my cup. “Liza, I know you’re worried but it’s natural to not be in control for a few months at least. And sometimes even years, especially if the person had anger issues before becoming a werewolf.”

I sighed. I knew it wouldn’t be that bad, I didn’t have anger issues either which meant it wouldn’t be that bad. And he had already said that he wasn’t going to let me hurt anyone so that eliminated that threat. But what if one day he wasn’t there? If he wasn’t with me on a full moon and I still didn’t have my anchor.

“Liza, I can’t imagine you learnt well from Gerard but I am not Gerard. I understand that harshness and humiliation is not a teaching method that works, they rarely do. It inspires rebellion when I would prefer mutual respect,” he said softly. He had taken a step towards me and had put his cup down on the counter top. “And while Gerard has only taught you and your siblings, I have taught far more werewolves. And so far, they are all in control of their abilities. Besides, you managed to block out the kettle, even if you also blocked me out when I tried talking to you.”  
“I’m sorry about that,” I whispered. The last thing I wanted to do was ignore him.  
“I know,” he said.

I turned to face him properly, it just sort of felt rude not to look at him, even if he couldn’t see me.  
“But that is a start,” he continued. “It’s better than not being able to ignore the kettle at all and having a meltdown. Whatever you focused on seemed to help.”  
“Well, I was thinking about you,” I said honestly and I picked up my cup. “And that maybe we could listen to some of my audiobooks later or something.”  
“I like the sound of that.” He was smiling and I knew I was smiling back.

His hand left my arm and he moved around the counter to sit down and drink his tea.  
“And I still owe you a dance.”  
I laughed as I picked up the cup. “From last night?”  
“Yes, I said I would dance with you when you asked, didn’t I?” he said as his hand wrapped around his own cup.

“Well yes but…” I trailed off. He wasn’t seriously thinking I was expecting him to still dance with me because he agreed to before I was shot. Twice, with a crossbow.  
“But?” he prompted. Did I really have to explain it to him?  
“I got shot by…” It took everything not to call him father but the mere thought of it disgusted me. “Well, Gerard shot me, didn’t he? And then I became a werewolf.”

“That’s no excuse for not dancing with you, Liza,” he said as he gently shook his head. It was like he disapproved of himself for not dancing with me.  
“Well, I guess if you’re insistent, we can dance right now.”  
“Did you finish your drink?” Glancing down at the cup of tea that was probably getting rather cold rather quickly, I reconsidered my answer.  
“We can dance in five minutes.”


	27. Vingt-Sept

“I'm going to find a florist,” I said as I grabbed my jacket. Deuc’s eyebrows raised as I zipped the jacket up.  
“A florist?” he asked.  
“Yes” I said. “I'm going to send Dr. Deaton some flowers, as a thank you.”  
“Is it really necessary?”  
“No,” I replied. Or maybe it was, I had no idea. “But I want to give him flowers anyway. You're welcome to come with me if you want.”  
He hummed again before responding, “Yes, I think I will.”

I handed him his jacket once he stood up and then headed over to the elevator and pressed the button. We waited for it to reach the top and we stepped in after the doors opened.

It was warm and the air seemed stagnant as we walked. I regretted wearing a jacket, the hot rays of the sun beamed down on us. There was a florist not too far away and with any luck, they would deliver to the animal clinic. I hadn't brought too much money with me so I hoped the flowers weren't too expensive. Though, there was no doubt Deucalion would offer to pay if I didn't have enough.

While holding his hand, I focused on the trees and hedges along the edge of the paths. The houses we passed were large with fancy lawns and expensive cars parked outside and on driveways.

“I’m hoping they have the flowers I want to send him,” I said before telling him to stop since there was a car driving far too fast.  
“What flowers?”  
“I was thinking maybe Canterbury bells, dark pink roses and maybe white hydrangeas,” I said. “Though hydrangeas usually means gratitude for being understood.”

After informing him it was safe to cross, we walked to the other side of the road.  
“That’s oddly specific.”  
“Mom used to have a book on flowers and what they meant. I used to keep reading it when I was a kid,” I said, smiling to myself. It all sounded ridiculous out loud. It was from the Victorian era, I doubted anyone cared about the meanings now.  
“That’s interesting,” he said with a smile on his face. “Perhaps I should order a bouquet for you.”  
“We’ll have to see what they have in the store then.”

Heading into the flower shop on the corner of the next street, the scent of pollen and flowers assaulted me. Squeezing my eyes shut, I took a moment to try to ignore the overwhelming amount of smells. They never usually bothered me this much. After a few moments, I managed to ignore enough of the smells to walk around the shop.

Deucalion held onto my elbow as I walked around and looked at the flowers.  
“Do you think they could make a thank you bouquet?” I asked.  
“You’d have to ask, I think.”

The person at the till had short, bright pink hair and was arranging some flowers in a vase.  
“Excuse me,” I said as I walked over. “Do you deliver thank you bouquets?”  
They looked up from the flowers in the vase and nodded. “Um, yes we do. Is there one in store you want us to deliver or do you want us to make a new bouquet?”

Smiling, I explained that I wanted to send a thank you bouquet to the animal clinic. They smiled back and said it wasn’t the first time someone had sent flowers there. I discovered that Ash, the person currently running the store, had taken their cat to Dr. Deaton several times.

“You don’t by any chance happen to have bouquets of flowers for a beautiful lady, do you?” asked Deucalion. Ash glanced at me and I could tell my cheeks were bright red without needing a mirror.  
“We do, I can take you to them, if you’d like?” she offered. Deucalion nodded and thanked them as he took their elbow and let them guide them to the flowers.

I waited by the counter and watched as his fingertips felt the petals and leaves of the flowers in the bouquets. It looked as though she was telling him the flowers and their colours and I smiled.  
“I was thinking that maybe you could change the pink roses for something like white carnations,” he said. “They tend to represent purity and things that are sweet and lovely. I do like the orange tulips though.”

Did he know the meanings that I knew?

Deciding I’d wait to ask him, I watched as Ash tried to sneakily bring the flowers to the till while I walked over to Deucalion and took his hand.  
“I think you’ll like the flowers I’ve picked,” he said. I knew he was distracting me from what Ash was doing at the counter and I was happy to play along.  
“I’m sure I will.” He smiled.

Ash called us to the counter when we needed to pay. Deucalion paid but I insisted I give him the money for the thank you flowers for Dr. Deaton. He was reluctant to accept.

After getting a receipt for the flowers, we headed outside.  
“Who are the flowers for then?” I asked with a grin on my face.  
“I believe they're for a beautiful lady,” he said as he held the flowers out to me. Laughing, I took them and kissed his cheek.  
“I’m glad you can’t see me blushing,” I told him as I looked at the flowers.

Red roses, orange tulips and white carnations. True love; appreciation and truest love; sweet, lovely and pure love. I had the feeling he knew those meanings.  
“You don’t happen to know what these flowers mean, according to that book I practically memorised as a child, do you?” I asked as we started walking back to the penthouse. He smiled and I raised my eyebrows.  
“Do I really need to answer that, my love?”

It seemed he was getting better at making me speechless.

I was definitely glad he couldn’t see how much I was blushing. What was I supposed to respond to that with? I had to stop walking just to process what he had called me. His hand moved upwards and his thumb ran along my jawline.

“Oh, sweet Liza, you have no idea,” he whispered. There was an urge to kiss him but instead I just held his hand and clutched the flowers in the other.  
“I want to kiss you but I think we should go home first.”


	28. Vingt-Huit

Deucalion waited on the balcony while the Betas arrived. He was planning to introduce me to them. Looking at the glass we had decided to use as a vase for the flowers, I smiled. They had been meant for me and he’d called me ‘my love’.

The last of the Betas arrived, she was short with dark brown skin and cornrows with beads at the end. She looked really nice. Tasha half sat, half leant against the arm of the sofa. A blond man stood with his arms crossed next to a very tall man who wore a waistcoat over his button up shirt.

“We have a new member of the pack,” said Deuc as he stood in the doorway to the balcony. “Liza Blakesley.”  
“You turned her?” asked Tasha as she stood and turned to look at him. He nodded and they stared at me. My fingers tapped the chair I was leaning against.

“When?” asked the one with the waistcoat. His eyes flicked back to Deucalion.  
“In the early hours of the morning, Charles,” he answered as he walked inside, the door shut behind him by itself.  
“Did she ask you to?” asked Tasha as she walked over to me.  
“I asked him to not let me die,” I said shakily. I didn’t want to look weak in front of them, not in front of a pack of werewolves. “I would have bled to death otherwise.”

“How touching,” muttered the man with his arms crossed. “Are you just trying to replace the five we’ve lost?”  
“No, Jake, I was trying to save her life,” said Deucalion with a sigh. His head tilted to the side. “Though it is good that we have gained someone after losing five.”

“If she’s only been turned today, she’s not in control,” said the one with the cornrows. “There’s a full moon in a few days.”  
“She’s not going to be in control,” said Jake.  
“But she’ll learn, right?” said Tasha, looking at Deucalion.

“I’m still here,” I said. It was awkward listening to them talk about me while I was in the room with them. “And yes, I can learn.”  
“But not in three days,” said Charles.  
“She doesn’t need to.”  
“See? Tamika understands,” said Deucalion. He smiled. “It’ll take as long as it takes, she doesn’t need an anchor in three days.”

“We don’t have anywhere to lock her away,” Tasha pointed out. “What are we going to do if she escapes? The Argents and the others will be hunting us.”  
“We’re not back at home, it’s not like we can just keep them in the basement.”  
“The basement?” I asked, furrowing my brow.  
“It’s the best place with a lock, it stops people from escaping. We haven’t used it in years though,” Tamika explained and I smiled as a thanks. “Didn’t we put a bunch of storage things in there, though?”  
“Yes, we’d have to move it,” said Deucalion.

“You mean, we’d have to move it,” said Jake bitterly as he looked to Charles. Charles just nervously looked away.  
“Yes, Jake, you’d have to move it. It’s probably difficult to empty and move draws when you can’t see them.” There was anger in his voice as he walked forward. Jake looked like he was going to talk and try to argue but opted to remain silent. “We don’t have to worry about time, she’ll stay here.”

“She’ll destroy the place if she stays here and there’s an elevator or a balcony,” said Tamika. She was worried I’d be destructive, I was also terrified of that too.  
“You have a plan for that, right?” I asked Deucalion.  
He nodded. “Of course I do, I’m not letting you hurt anyone or destroy anything.” I smiled at him.

“You like her, don’t you?” said Jake as he looked between Deucalion and me.  
“Of course he does,” said Tasha as she rolled her eyes. “But what if this is just a way to get back at the hunters?” Deucalion wouldn’t have done all of this just to get back at Gerard, would he?  
“It’s not.” Deucalion almost growled. “I asked you to come here to meet the new pack member. I don’t expect for you to suddenly become friends but I’d appreciate it if you were civil.” It felt as though it was more aimed at Tasha’s sort of insult at Deucalion rather than her attitude towards me. I supposed it could be both.  
“I know you’re still angry,” she said as she turned and headed to the elevator. “Even if you mask it, it’s obvious.”

There was still the gnawing thought that all of this was just because he was angry at my father.

Tasha left with Jake, leaving Charles and Tamika still in the penthouse with us. I didn’t want to start arguments amongst them.  
“It’s nice to meet you, Miss Blakesley,” said Charles as he walked over to me. He pulled at the cuff of his shirt before holding his hand out. I shook it with a smile on my face.  
“Elizabeth is fine, that’s my actual name,” I said. I was used to being called Liza by Deucalion and ‘Miss Blakesley’ felt as though I was a teacher.  
“Oh, okay then,” he said, nodding.

“You don’t seem that bad,” said Tamika with a shrug. “Tasha just misses Jack, she hasn’t seen him in a month.”  
“Jack’s her boyfriend, right?” I said. Deuc had mentioned their relationship.  
“Engaged, as of two months ago,” said Charles with an awkward smile. I nodded in acknowledgement.  
“She thinks that we should attack the hunters too, but Deuc says differently.”  
“Because there’s no point, we are weaker,” he said coldly. It probably hurt to admit that but they had lost a lot of people. “We’ve lost four people and I can’t see,” said Deuc.

“Do you like her, though?” Charles asked quietly.  
“Does it matter?”  
“If it makes you happy,” he said and I smiled. Charles seemed kind.  
“Do you think I’d buy flowers for myself?”

Charles furrowed his brow and Tamika laughed, shaking her head.  
“No, I don’t,” she said. Charles spotted the flowers and smiled. “Lovely to meet you, Elizabeth, welcome to the pack. I think we’ll leave you two alone, shall we?” My cheeks heated up and Deucalion sighed.  
“Yes, thank you, Tamika. Very necessary,” he muttered. Tamika just grinned as she pressed the button for the elevator. Charles gave an awkward wave before heading over to join her. I waved back.  
“It was nice meeting you guys,” I said. I liked those two, I liked Tasha and Jack less. They seemed to not like me either.

Just before the elevator doors shut, Tamika yelled: “Have fun!”  
“Stay safe!” Charles added.

I stared at Deuc, mouth open. And then the elevator doors shut.  
“I can’t believe I just heard that,” I whispered, trying not to laugh from pure embarrassment.  
“Unfortunately, I’m not.”


	29. Vingt-Neuf

“Tasha doesn’t like me,” I said as I drank my tea.  
“Tamika was right, she just misses Jack,” Deucalion said as he sat down on the sofa. I set the cup down on the coaster on the coffee table. “And she knows who your family is, I think the only one who doesn’t is Charles.” I hummed as I leaned back and rested my head on the back of the sofa. That meant Tamika knew who my family was and didn’t care. At least, she didn’t seem to.

Deuc motioned for me to sit next to him so I shuffled over on the sofa and I did so. What Tasha had said had stuck in my mind.  
“You aren’t using me, are you?” I asked quietly. I sipped my tea and moved it along the coffee table so I could reach it better.  
“No,” he said without a moment of hesitation. “No, Liza, I’m not.”  
“You’re not just using me to annoy Gerard or anything?” I finished the rest of the tea before resting my head against his shoulder. “Because that’s what this started as, we both wanted to annoy him.”

Tasha probably knew him better than I did. All of his pack probably knew him better than I did. I had only known him for less than a month and they had all known him for years.  
“Liza, I haven’t used you nor do I intend on using you to anger Gerard,” he said as his hand found mine. There was still a bitterness in the way he said Gerard. “I’ll admit I considered it, when I first met you and you offered for me to blind you. But I didn’t blind you and I didn’t use you. You interested me.”  
“Interested you?”

“You weren’t like your father.”  
I laughed a little, I wasn’t sure what to say at all. But I was never like him, Kate was. Chris seemed to be the only one to follow the code properly. “I know. It’s not the first time I’ve heard that actually.”  
“I’m not too surprised at that,” he said. “You’re sweet, and beautiful.”  
I smiled. “I don’t look like what you saw though, I’m ginger now, and my hair is shorter.”  
“I have no doubt you’re still beautiful, my love.”

My heart just seemed to jump and he smiled.

“Are you listening to my heartbeat?” I asked him.  
“Why would I be doing that?” he asked but he was smiling and I could just tell he had been listening.  
“I don’t know,” I replied in a similar tone. He chuckled and I laughed along with him.  
“When I’m with you,” he started, “I don’t feel like a man angry at the world for being blinded, I just feel... like a man. It’s difficult to get angry when I know you’re in the same room as me, and you don’t treat me differently.”

“Because I shouldn’t treat you differently,” I said. Not having sight didn’t mean they were less of a person, they just had to do some things differently. “You’re not suddenly incapable or less of a person.”  
“As I’ve discovered, apparently it does,” he said. His smile had been replaced with a frown. I squeezed his hand.  
“Not to me,” I said. Though it seemed a lot of people had treated him differently, including two of his own Betas who he ended up killing in self-defence. “Even though that doesn’t mean much, there’s a lot of stupid people in the world who’ll treat you badly or like an idiot but I couldn’t ever do that.”

Deucalion didn’t say anything and I was worried that I had said the wrong thing, though I wasn’t sure what.  
“It means a lot, actually,” he said quietly and I smiled.  
“And it’s okay to be angry, if you are still angry,” I told him. It was understandable after what had happened.  
“I want to rip out his guts and slash his throat.”  
I stared at him and slowly nodded. “Yeah, I think you’re angry.”  
“So do I,” he said.

He lowered his head and sighed.  
“I should have listened to Talia and Dr. Deaton,” he said. “They tried to warn me that I shouldn’t try to make peace with Gerard and I didn’t listen.”  
“You didn’t know what was going to happen,” I said. Even the other hunters had gone there with the intent of making peace, it was just Gerard who hadn’t.  
“They warned me he would probably try something and I didn’t listen.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that,” I said. I tried not to be harsh but it hurt listening to him blame himself for something out of his control. “He was the only one who knew. Kara’s dad didn’t know, neither did the other hunter. Please don’t blame yourself for that.”  
“Liza…” He sighed and lifted my hand to his face. “I’m just angry, Tasha was right about that. As much as I try to hide it and as much as it goes away when I’m with you, it’s still there.”

I couldn’t blame him. I’d be angry too if I had gone through what he had gone through in the last month. Losing a pack member was supposed to be worse than losing family. And he had lost five.  
“Deuc, it’s okay,” I said softly. “I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t be angry after going through what you have.”

“You’re so sweet, my love,” he murmured. Yet again, I was rendered utterly speechless and he knew as he chuckled.  
“You’re doing that on purpose,” I grumbled. He could continue doing it on purpose too.  
“Perhaps,” he said. “But I don’t hear any complaints.”  
“No,” I said. Even though I was shaking my head, I was smiling. “No complaining from me.”  
“Good.”

Closing my eyes, I pulled my feet up onto the chair and curled up next to him. I yawned, a lot had happened in the last 24 hours.  
“Tired?” he asked.  
“Maybe,” I mumbled. “Okay, yeah, I’m tired.”  
“Go to bed then.”

Knowing that I probably should change into pajamas and get in bed, I reluctantly put my feet on the floor. I’d slept in Deuc’s bed with him last night, or more accurately, this morning. Did I go back to the guest room?  
“Which bed?” I asked slowly, hoping the answer wasn’t obvious.  
“Whichever you prefer,” he said. I let go of his hand to stand up and hummed as I thought.  
“Can I sleep with you then?”  
“Yes,” he said with a smirk. “Of course you can, my love.”

“I hate you.”  
“No, you really don’t.”


	30. Trente

The full moon was tonight.

And it terrified me.

“Liza, my love,” he said. And I smiled. “When you find your anchor, would you like me to teach you a new dance?”  
“A new dance?” I asked as I turned the page to continue writing. I was almost at the end of a notebook, I'd need a new one soon. I'd also need to type it up and edit it too. “What dance?”

“I was thinking the tango, it’s a bit more technical but I’m sure you’ll do fine,” he said as he reached out for my hand. He had been doing that a lot over the last few days. But I took it, I had the feeling he was worried, and if I could tell the chemosignals apart, I could probably tell how he was feeling. “And I suppose it’s technically an International style tango.”  
“That sounds fancy.”  
“I suppose it can be,” he said with a slight shrug. “What do you think?”  
“I'd like that.”

Humming, I let go of his hand to put the lid on the pen. I shut the notebook and then turned and leaned back. I rested my head in his lap and looked up at him.  
“I’m not going to kill myself, Deuc, I promised you that and I intend to keep that promise.” His hand moved from the arm of the sofa and his fingers ran through my hair. It was comforting and I closed my eyes.  
“I know you promised,” he said. I could sense the unspoken ‘but’.  
“I’m not like Gerard, I keep to my word,” I said. It still felt a little weird calling him by his name but I still couldn’t bring myself to call him Dad any longer.

“Liza, your family have a history of committing ritual suicide when they’re bitten by a werewolf,” he said quietly.  
“I know,” I whispered. “It’s a little cult-like actually and saying that makes it sort of scary but I’m not going to say the Argent code and then kill myself before I can turn into a werewolf. I promise. I’d promise you a thousand times because I’m not going to.”  
“You have no idea how glad I am to hear that.”

My uncle had done such a thing. He had shot himself at a motel after being bitten by…

“Deuc?”  
“Yes?” I opened my eyes to look at him.  
“My uncle, he shot himself in the head,” I started. I took a deep breath. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the answer but he was more likely to tell the truth. And I had heard this from Gerard. “In a motel, I know that’s true, I found it in the newspapers. He was found with a strange animal bite on his side.”

“What are you trying to ask me, Liza?”  
I had to take another deep breath before asking. “Did you bite my uncle? I was… I was a child, like three years old and suddenly Uncle Alexander couldn’t visit any more. He had been sad and went away. He always said it was you.” His hand stopped but he hadn’t untangled it from my ginger locks.  
“No, it wasn’t me,” he said after a moment. “I would have been young, and while likely not in control I would have been up against more than one hunter. I would have likely been killed by them.”

“So he lied,” I said quietly. Sighing, I closed my eyes and he played with my hair, wrapping it and unwrapping it around his fingers. “I wish I was surprised by that.”  
“He told you I did it?” he asked. I nodded, he could probably feel my head moving.  
“Yes.” And yet, I hadn’t thought about that when I first came to the penthouse. Even before I knew he hadn’t done it, it didn’t seem to bother me. I wondered if it should have, I had never really known my uncle properly and I had thought it was Deucalion’s fault. But it never changed anything. “I’m glad it wasn’t you.”  
“It might have been someone in my family,” he said. “But it wasn’t me who bit your uncle.”

It was quiet for a moment. I was sort of relieved that he hadn’t been the one to bite my uncle. But thinking about it, it wouldn’t be the fault of whoever bit him, it would be the fault of the code. And whoever had made him kill himself. Unfortunately, it was likely Gerard had encouraged his brother to ‘do the right thing’. I didn’t know how doing the right thing included killing yourself.

“I wish I could have known him better, I barely remember him,” I said. “How many hunters lost their lives and how many lost the chance of knowing their family because of it?”  
“Probably too many,” he said. “But if they didn’t enforce the suicides, why would they stay hunters?”  
“To kill the cruel werewolves, the ones that kill for fun, the ones who enjoy ruining people’s lives,” I said. “But sometimes knowing is difficult. That’s probably why Gerard never follows the code properly. They’re only supposed to hunt the ones they know for definite have killed people.”

“It’s a shame Gerard couldn’t follow that, we might have avoided all of this,” he said. I could hear the sadness in his voice. He never wanted this to happen, he had just wanted peace. And it hurt knowing it would now never be achieved. Because he would always be angry, even if sometimes I helped him forget about it.

I sat up and shuffled back so I was sitting in his lap. The hand that had been in my hair wrapped around me to stop me from falling onto the floor.  
“Someday… someday he’ll die, I suppose. I wouldn’t be surprised if he died at your hands, I don’t think I could bring myself to be mad at you for that,” I told him as I traced his jawline. He stared ahead, he couldn’t see me. He would never be able to see me properly because of Gerard. “And when he dies, Chris and Victoria will be better. And so will their daughter when she’s older. Chris will be so much better.”

“And what about you sister?” he asked.  
“I think she’s too much like Gerard,” I said honestly. Maybe that was why we never could get along very well. “She prefers a looser interpretation of the code, I guess.”  
“A shame, I thought it was supposed to get better with each generation, learn from the lasts’ failings,” he said.  
“It only works if Kate sees what Gerard has done as a failure or something bad, if she even knows what truly happened,” I said. And then I realised. “She was supposed to be coming here to help find me, I don’t know if she’s here or not, or if she thinks I’m dead.”  
“Don’t worry about her, I’m sure Chris will deal with it,” he said.

His voice was so soothing, it was hard not to believe him. But I was still worried. The sun was starting to set. And the full moon was tonight.

“If I had to promise not to kill myself twice, will you promise not to let me hurt anyone or rip things to shreds?”  
“I promise, my love.” Smiling, I pressed my lips against his. There were no butterflies but it was calming. His hand pulled me closer and I smiled as I pulled away to breathe. Our foreheads were touching and his breath was warm on my skin and while there weren't any magical sparks, it felt natural to just kiss him.

So I did it again.


	31. Trente Et Un

I stared at the moon. It was bright and enchanting. And there was an urge to tear everything to pieces.

It was just the bloodlust, the aggression. It wasn't me, it was the full moon and the Bite that had caused this. Deucalion wouldn't let me hurt anyone, he wouldn't let me destroy anything.

Taking deep breaths, I tried to hold onto that calm feeling I had while we kissed, while he held me in his arms. The joy as I read my writing to him and how he spoke of his favourite characters and his favourite descriptions. His favourite was still the waterfall, even though I had written so much more.

And his eyes… Every time I looked at them I was reminded of Gerard and what he did. And I hate it but if it wasn’t for that, I would have never gotten to know him. I would never have held his hand, or kissed him or wrote the story with the waterfall. I would never have danced with him or drunk tea.

I turned to look at him properly, I could feel myself shaking and I tried to resist the urge to attack him. I shouldn’t have wanted to attack him, he had been so kind to me. Deuc could have blinded me and he didn’t, he had helped me leave hunting behind.

This wasn’t working, I could feel rage consuming every little thought. I wanted to kill. I wanted to slice through flesh with claws and sink fangs into people.

“Stop fighting it, Liza.”

And I ran at him, furiously swiping with claws. His eyes glowed and he easily deflected every attack. His fingers wrapped around my left wrist and I tried to free myself. Yanking my hand free wasn’t working. Growling, I tried to free my hand by clawing at his. He let go of my hand after a few swipes at his wrist. I backed away, trying to think of how I would attack him.

I swiped at his arm and he grabbed my right wrist this time. Snarling, I bared my teeth and attempted to kick at his legs. Only to stumble back after being forcefully pushed.

The ground shook as he roared. My knees hit the floor and I gasped, watching as the claws vanished. I stopped myself from completely collapsing by propping myself up with my hands. Taking shaky breaths, I closed my eyes. I didn’t have an anchor.

I could feel the terror as I heard his footsteps. Looking up, I saw his outstretched hand and took it. He pulled me to my feet and I stared at the blood on his wrist and my hand.  
“I hurt you,” I said softly as I lifted his wrist up. It had already healed but there was still his blood there.  
“It’s nothing,” he said, shaking his head. Biting my lip, I stared at the blood on my nails and shuddered.

“I don’t have an anchor.”  
“I’m not surprised,” he said. He started walking towards the sink. “What were you thinking about?”  
“You,” I said as I followed with my hand still holding his. “I thought of you, and us. But it didn’t work.”  
He smiled. “It doesn’t have to, though I feel a little flattered you thought of me.”

He bumped into the counter and reached out to turn the tap on. The fear was fading as he lifted my hands and put them under the warm water. The blood washed away and he grabbed a hand towel for me to dry my hands. There was still a tiny amount of fear, he had turned me back human with a roar that made the building shake. He wiped away his own blood and took my hands.

“I hurt you,” I repeated. I looked down at our hands.  
“It’s alright,” he said softly. “It doesn’t hurt now it’s healed.”  
“I attacked you though.” Even after everything, I had attacked him.  
“The full moon does that to you,” he said calmly, as if I hadn’t just tried to carve into him with claws. “It isn’t your fault, my love.”

I smiled at him and pulled him into a hug. I could feel myself shaking still.  
“It’s not your fault, Liza,” he whispered into my ear. His voice was as soothing as always and I tried to relax. “It takes time, no one would learn in four days.”  
“I know,” I said quietly as I pulled away from the hug. “I just… I didn’t want to hurt you.”  
“I told you I wouldn’t let you hurt anyone or destroy anything, you haven’t hurt me Liza, it was just a scratch.” Despite his insistence, there was still guilt.

“When Jack first turned, he cut open my chest, and ruined a rather nice shirt.” He chuckled and I smiled. “He also destroyed a rather nice glass coffee table by throwing Marco through it. Tasha had forgotten to lock the basement door properly. You haven’t done nearly as much damage. Don’t feel bad about it, Liza.”  
“I’ll try not to,” I said. It was the best I could do.

Yawning, I lifted my hand to cover my mouth.  
“Apparently, I'm tired,” I said, laughing a little. He hummed. “I never got to read my writing to you.” We had ended up talking about Gerard and my uncle, Alexander. And then we had been kissing. I smiled at the thought of it.  
“You can read it to me tomorrow,” he said, smiling. “And I'll look forward to it.”  
“How do you keep saying things that make me want to kiss you?” Giggling, I squeezed his hand.  
“I ask myself the same thing.” He was smiling and I smiled back. I yawned again.

“Do you want to go to bed?” he asked.  
“I probably should, shouldn't I?” I said as I nodded. But the way he asked… “Are you coming with me?”  
“Do you want me to?”  
“Do I really have to tell you the answer?” I asked as I started walking to his bedroom, still holding his hand.  
He chuckled as he followed. “I suppose you don't have to answer that.”


	32. Trente-Deux

The thought of leaving him or the comfort of the warm bed was a stupid one. I snuggled closer to him, happy to just lie next to him. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus and listen to everything. Someone on the floor below was watching tv and there was something pouring into a cup, maybe water.

Deuc’ breathing was soft and regular, just like his heartbeat. It was weird being able to hear it. Oddly, it was soothing. And then his breathing changed.  
“Are you awake?” I whispered, hoping that I wasn’t disturbing him.  
“Unfortunately.”  
I let out a laugh and his hand moved under the duvet to wrap around me. “Same,” I said. I yearned for the sweet blissful escape called sleep, especially since I know Deucalion was beside me.

“You know, I had an idea yesterday,” he said. I raised my eyebrows despite having my eyes closed and despite the fact that he couldn’t see me do that.  
“Am I going to find out what it is?” I asked with a smile.  
“Keep smiling and I might just tell you,” he said. I forgot he could tell from my voice.  
“But I want to know,” I whined, trying not to frown at him.  
“I know you do but you’re not smiling.”

Taking a deep breath, I wondered if it was worth smiling to find out. Surely I’d find out what it was at some point?  
“Please?” I pleaded. I really did want to know, he had made me curious now.  
He sighed. “Oh, Liza, you can’t sound like that.”   
“Why not?” I asked, trying to keep the same tone of voice.

“How am I supposed to not tell you now?” he asked. He sounded irritated at it but I had the feeling he wasn’t really.  
“I don’t know,” I said as innocently as I could.  
“I suppose I’ll just have to tell you,” he said with a sigh.  
“Oh no, what a shame,” I said dryly with a smirk on my face.

“Well, If I can’t keep it a surprise,” he started and I smiled, waiting for him to carry on speaking. “I wanted to take you on a date, on a picnic. Since our first date was… rudely interrupted.” Deuc continued to sound bitter at even the slightest reference to Gerard.  
“A date?” My smile widened.  
“Yes, if you want to.”  
“Of course I want to,” I said. “I’d love to.”  
“That’s good.”

Opening my eyes, I realised how close we were. Not that I was complaining, Deucalion was beautiful.  
“How are you so pretty?” I mumbled before sighing. He chuckled as he opened his eyes. How they had healed was so fascinating, I wondered why they had the red ring around them.  
“I’m not sure how to answer that.”  
I laughed. “For once, I’m not the speechless one,” I said with a grin. It was his turn to know how irritating it was to have no idea what to say.

He leaned forward and kissed me and my fingers found their way into his hair. I stared at him, mouth open. There were words I wanted to say but apparently I couldn’t form a sentence.

And there was a certain scent in the air, one I couldn’t place.

Why did the outside world have to exist? Why couldn’t it just be us? No irritated Betas, no estranged family. Just us.

His breathing was heavier, and more erratic. And all I could do was stare at him, still not able to say words. Whatever smell it was, it was stronger. I had no idea what the smell was but after a more fervent kiss, I realised.

Chemosignals.

And I had the feeling I knew which one this was.

“I quite like the sound of you begging,” he said. His voice was lower and I was not going to protest against where this was going.  
“Deuc…” I let out a shaky breath as he moved me so I was lying on my back. He was above me and I had completely lost the words I was going to say. Closing my eyes for a moment, I shook my head slightly.

“Are you alright, my love?” he asked softly. It contrasted his dominating aura which was entirely new for this type of situation, though it didn’t surprise me at all.  
“I am more than alright,” I said, laughing a little. “I'm definitely more than alright.”  
“So you don’t mind if I do this?” As he spoke, I could feel his weight shift and he peppered kisses along my neck.  
“Not at all.” My voice was barely audible but I could feel his smile.

“It’s good that I asked the Betas to help with packing things after lunch,” he said.  
“They’re coming here to help with-”  
He shushed me. “Don’t worry about it, my love.” His teeth grazed over my collarbone and I shuddered.  
“Kiss me,” I said. Remembering what he had said earlier, I smiled. “Please, kiss me, Deuc.”

And I was so glad he did.

“I think I l-” He shushed me again and I would be lying if I said I didn’t like it. His eyes glowed bright red for just a moment.  
“You’re definitely not innocent now, sweet Liza,” he murmured and I felt anticipation and another familiar feeling building. His finger brushed over my cheeks and my lips.  
“I don’t want to be.”  
“Good.” He almost growled it.

I had the feeling I would enjoy this.


	33. Trente-Trois

Once I finished the chapter I was writing, I put the lid on the pen and closed the notebook. I looked up and around at the Betas helping to pack the apartment in boxes. I felt as though I should help but Deuc insisted I could carry on writing.

“Liza, would you mind coming with me?” he asked. Smiling, I nodded.  
“Yeah, okay,” I said as I stood.  
“Charles, could you pass the bag from the counter, please?” asked Deuc as he waited by the elevator. Charles looked up and quickly nodded. He walked quickly to the breakfast bar and grabbed the bag to give to Deucalion.

I slipped back into the guest bedroom to put on my boots and my jacket and then headed to the elevator.  
“Something smells odd,” said Tasha as she carried a box from his study.  
“Don’t worry about it,” said Deuc as I looked down. Could she smell what had happened? It was certainly a possibility. Deuc smiled and offered out his hand. I took his hand and as the elevator opened, we stepped in.

“Where are we going?” I asked as I pressed the button for the ground floor.  
“To the park for that picnic, I should think,” he said with a smile on his face. Remembering the idea he had mentioned earlier, I gasped.  
“Oh, I forgot about that,” I admitted. He chuckled as we stepped out of the elevator.

Still holding hands, we headed outside. The air was warm despite it being early evening and it felt rather peaceful. We headed to the local park, hopefully there would be a bench to sit down on to eat the food that I assumed was in the bag Charles handed to him.

I spotted a familiar face walking towards me.

“Hey! Liz!”

Kate.

Anxiously, I looked to Deuc but he just held my hand a little tighter.  
“Liz, is that you?” she asked, stopping right in front of us so that it was difficult for us to both walk around her.  
“Um…” I said, staring at her. What did I say to her? “Who are you?”  
“Uh, your sister?” Kate said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  
“I don’t think I know you,” I said shakily. My other hand moved to cling onto his arm.

Kate stared at me for a moment. Did she still recognise me despite the change in hair colour and style and a completely different way of dressing?  
“Sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought you were someone else.” I stared into her brown eyes and I felt Deuc pulling me away.  
“Come on, honey, let’s go,” he said softly. My insides practically melted at his words and I looked away from Kate and to him. Smiling, I carried on walking with him. It took everything to not turn around and look at my sister, even if we hadn’t gotten along very well.

“My love, are you alright?” he asked as we sat down on a bench. I hadn’t said much and just leaned against his shoulder.  
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. His arm wrapped around my shoulder and my stomach rumbled, I hadn’t really eaten too much today.  
“Don’t think about it,” he said. “Maybe you should eat.” I nodded. I don’t remember him cooking but he must have done everything while I was doing something else.

There were sandwiches, sausage rolls, drumsticks and an assortment of other foods.  
“When did you do this?”  
“While you were writing, I had asked Charles to buy them for me and I gave him the money,” he said. He was smiling and I pulled out some of the food.  
“Oh,” I said as I handed him food. I smiled. “Let’s just hope this goes better, right?”  
“I’m sure it will.”

And we talked as we ate and the sun slowly set. The sky was filled with a beautiful mix of colours that I wished he could have seen. But I described it to him as well as I could, mentioning how the golden rays of the sun shone through the trees. The long shadows the trees cast slowly being engulfed as everything grew darker. And it was like tiny silver fragments had been scattered onto the dark blue sky as the stars appeared one by one.

“Thank you for the date,” I said, smiling as I closed my eyes.  
“You have nothing to thank me for,” he said. “It couldn’t have happened without you.”  
“And you call me the sweet one.” I couldn’t resist looking at him and I had to open my eyes and turn my head.  
“You are the sweet one,” he said. He hand lifted to caress my cheek. His hands were warm as his fingers followed my jawline.

The moment was tinged with sadness as I thought of Kate. I wasn’t going to miss her too much but it was a painful reminder of what I had left behind. Chris and Allison, and my best friend.

“I want to see Kara,” I said.  
“Your friend?” he asked.  
“Yeah.”  
“Is that a good idea?” he asked as he took my hand.  
“I don’t know, but if I’m moving away I at least want to try to talk to her,” I said. I couldn’t just give up on it, I couldn’t leave her without trying to tell her the truth.

“What if there’s other people there?” he asked. “If they see you, they’ll know it’s you, regardless of your hair colour.”  
“I have to try,” I said, nodding. I had to try. “I’ll go tomorrow, I’ll be out of the others’ way. I’ll be careful.”  
“If you insist,” he said with a sigh. I could understand why he wouldn’t want me to go. If her mother showed up, or anyone else for that matter…  
“I promise, I’ll be safe,” I said before leaning up to kiss his cheek. “I promise.”


	34. Trente-Quatre

My feet carried me to her house, I had never walked there from the penthouse but I knew where it was. Standing in front of the door, I took a deep breath. I was doing this. Lifting my hand, I knocked and nervously waited for her to open the door. There were no cars outside and hopefully no one had walked to her house, like I had.

This was such a stupid idea.

The door opened and Kara stared at me for a moment before furrowing her brow and shifting her weight from foot to foot.  
“Elizabeth?”  
“Hey.”

“Your dad said you died,” she whispered. “What…?”  
“Yeah, I’m not dead,” I said with an awkward smile. “Can I come in?” Slowly, Kara nodded and stepped back. I stepped inside and she shut the door behind me. It was weird to be standing here.  
“He said Deucalion killed you.”  
“He didn’t,” I said quietly, looking down at the floor.

She walked to the kitchen and I followed, still wondering if this was the right thing to do. My heart was pounding in my chest.  
“You’ve met him, haven’t you?” I nodded. “He killed my dad.”  
“I…” How could I lie to her?  
“You left at his funeral,” she hissed, narrowing her eyes at me. “Ed said that you were arguing with your dad and you left, did you have to do it there? I needed you and you left!”

“And I’m sorry,” I said honestly. I hadn’t wanted it to go like it had. “I didn’t have a choice.”  
“He said you were kidnapped and killed!”  
“Is that what he told you?” I asked quietly. Gerard hadn’t brought the kidnapping lie and yet he was using the lie himself. “Because it’s a lie. Everything he says is a lie. Deucalion didn’t kill me, he didn’t kidnap me and he didn’t kill your father.”

“Why would you say that?”

She stared at me, there were tears on her cheeks and I felt horrible. But I couldn’t keep lying to her, we had been friends basically all of our lives.  
“Because it’s true.”  
“You’re lying,” she said. “How do you even know? Why did you even come back here?”  
“Because I’m leaving, for real, and I didn’t want to have my best friend’s memory of me being that I abandoned her at her father’s funeral.”

Kara shook her head and I stepped towards her. She held her hand up and I stopped.  
“You know him, don’t you?” she asked. “You know Deucalion, don’t you? He’s a werewolf, Elizabeth. A werewolf, they’re predators and killers. You can’t tell me that’s where you’ve been.”  
“I didn’t get kidnapped the first time,” I said. This was a bad idea. But I had to be completely honest. “I went there to let him take it out on me, Kara. And I don’t know how it happened but I couldn’t be a hunter any more.”  
“Couldn’t be a hunter any more?” It was said as if it was a ridiculous statement that I should have been ashamed of thinking. But it wasn’t.

“I hated it, Kara! Always being compared to Chris and Kate, always being humiliated, I couldn’t kill anyone.” I stopped, I was raising my voice and I didn’t want to yell at her, not at my friend. “My own father shot me, Kara. I mean nothing to him. He couldn’t care who he hurts, whether it’s shooting me or blinding Deucalion or killing your father. You have to understand that.”

It was silent for a moment. Kara turned away and leaned against the kitchen counter.  
“He shot you?”  
“Yes,” I said, nodding as I walked over to her. “I should have died, Kara. I’m alive because of Deucalion. Somehow I have been hurt less by him than my own father.” And saying that out loud hurt. Because it was true.

She shook her head. “No. Why would you come here and tell me this?”  
“Because you deserve the truth,” I said, without a moment of hesitation. “He made me lie to you, I couldn’t tell you that he had killed your father. It was a trap for Deucalion, he just wanted peace like your father did. And he was killed for it. And if I told you, I would have been disowned.”

“Why would you come here and tell me you’re alive? Why not Chris or someone?” she yelled, furiously wiping away tears.  
“Chris knows,” I said quietly. “He was there…”  
“There?”  
“When I was shot, when I should have died.”

“Your dad went to hospital, were you there?” she asked. So Deucalion’s fears had been right, he would have been waiting at the hospital for me if Deucalion had taken me there.  
“No.”  
“So how did you survive getting shot?”  
“I’m not human, Kara,” I told her, looking away because I knew the look in her eyes would hurt. “I said I shouldn’t have survived and Deucalion…”  
“You’re a werewolf,” she stated.

I nodded, swallowing down the fear of the hatred and rejection. Looking up at her, I could just see confusion.  
“I didn’t want to die,” I tried to reason.  
“There’s already been a full moon, you should be dead.” Those words stung and I took a shaky breath.

“I should go,” I said, turning to leave through the front door. This had been such a bad idea, how could I have been so stupid?  
“Wait.” I stopped and turned to look at her. “He’s blind, right?”  
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. I wasn’t sure where this was going.

“Take my cane for him. I’m getting surgery in a few weeks, I shouldn’t need it any more,” she said as she felt around on the kitchen counter. She grabbed a folded white cane and held it out for me. I walked back and took it from her with a smile on my face.  
“That’s good, you’ll be able to see,” I said. Looking down at the cold metal cane in my hands, I sighed.

“It’s not because of him though, it’s because you were my friend, I guess you still are,” she said with a shrug. “There’s a sharp point at the end, if you take the rubber bit off. Dad modified it for me ages ago in case I’d need to fight someone with it.”  
“Thank you.”

Hesitantly, she pulled me into a hug.  
“You should go, don’t come back here,” she said, pushing me towards the door. I nodded and held the cane in my hands. I opened the door and Kara stood on the doorstep as I stood outside for a moment. This had gone nothing like I had expected and all I had expected was arguing.

“Are you happier?” she asked. “Not being a hunter and… and being with him?”  
“Yes,” I said. There was no questioning that, even with the chaos that had happened, I was happier. “I’m happy not being a hunter, and I’m happy with him.”  
“Good,” she said, nodding once. She let out a shaky breath and wiped her cheeks again. “You should go, Mom’s coming soon.”  
“Good luck with the surgery,” I said before turning and starting to walk. I could hear her quiet thank you. And then the door slammed shut.

At least she knew the truth now.


	35. Trente-Cinq

As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, I felt the tears well up in my eyes. I felt like I was going to throw up.

“Liza?”

As soon as his arms wrapped around me, I cried. Holding onto him as tight as I could, I let the tears fall. I didn’t have to hold them back to avoid crying in public.  
“What happened, my love?”  
“She didn’t believe me, I don’t really know if she does now. But she’s glad I’m happier, I think,” I whispered.  
“What’s in your hand?”

The cane.

“It’s for you, she won’t need it soon because she’s having surgery,” I said and pulled out of the hug. I wiped my eyes with the sleeve of my jacket and placed it in his hand. “It folds and if you take the rubber off the end, it’s got a point on it.” Deucalion unfolded the cane and his hand slid along it until he reached the rubber end. He pulled it off and held it in the same hand as he felt the point. He winced a little as he cut his finger open.  
“It’s certainly sharp,” he said. “Why does she have this?”  
“Her father made it, in case she needed to defend herself or something like that,” I explained. I couldn’t remember the exact words.

He shakily covered the point with the rubber and folded it back up.  
“Liza, you’re shaking,” he said as he took my hand. I hadn’t noticed.  
“I just…” I shook my head, what were the words to describe what had just happened? “That was a lot…”  
“I imagine it would be,” he said. “But it didn’t go too badly?”  
“No,” I said as I shook my head. “I guess it didn’t, she didn’t try to hit me or call anyone to tell them I was there.”

“Do you think she’ll tell anyone?” he asked. I hoped she wouldn’t. She knew the truth now, all of it. She knew about her father and what Gerard did and what I had been doing. She knew I was a werewolf. If she told anyone…  
“I hope not.”

Even if I felt like curling up and crying, I didn’t want to do that. I couldn’t do that, I needed to do something else to distract myself from it. Looking at the coffee table, I couldn’t see the notebook and pen that I had put down earlier.

“Where’s the notebook?” I asked him.  
He sighed. “Someone must have moved it, check my study. One of them likely put it in there.”  
“I’m also quite close to the end of the notebook.”  
“There should be one in the left draw of my desk, it’s red, I think,” he said.  
“Thank you,” I said. With a smile on my face, I took a step back and headed to the door which led to the study. I’d never been in there, it was the only room I hadn’t been in.

Stepping inside, I was not disappointed. There was a large bookcase on my left with only a few books left on it. There were boxes piled in the corner. In the centre of the room was an antique desk with an equally as impressive chair. On the desk was the notebook and pen that I was looking for.

Walking around the desk, I looked at the half-empty bottle of blue ink. That was probably the ink he had been using to refill the pen. I had no idea how to use it so he had refilled the pen for me. There were papers left on the desk, next to the notebook I had been using. They looked important and while I was curious, it was none of my business.

Pulling open the left draw, I pulled out the red notebook, which I was fairly sure was leather, from underneath small pots of paper clips and rubber bands. It still had the cardboard packaging tucked in it. I took the cardboard from around it and picked up the notebook and pen too. After shutting the draw, I headed back to the door, dropping the cardboard into the bin that was by the door.

Shutting the door to his study behind me, I took a deep breath and headed to the guest room. I could feel the tears in my eyes as I lay down on the bed. Staring at the closed door, I felt rather alone. I hadn't been in this room, other than to change clothes, for a few days. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be alone or not.

As much as seeing Kara again and explaining the truth to her had made me feel better because I was no longer lying to my best friend, it hurt. I'd never get to talk to her again, I wouldn't get to bake or sing or dance or insult whoever was announcing the songs on the radio again. I’d never get to do any of that.

Because I had left.

Because I had run away and stopped being a hunter. Because I was a werewolf, I was her entire family’s enemy, I was my own family’s enemy, except for Chris. The truce between Chris and Deucalion’s pack was still standing, as far as I was aware, and I was now a part of Deucalion’s pack.

There were knocks at the door and I stared at it.

“Liza?”

Deuc.

“Yes?”  
“Would you like to help me make dinner?” he asked. “You can pick what we eat.”  
“Give me five minutes and I’ll come and help you,” I said, as loudly as I could. My voice was shaky and it sounded like I had been crying. But he probably knew that already, he could probably hear me. “Do you have the ingredients for spaghetti bolognese?”  
“I think so,” he said. I smiled. “I’ve started counting for the five minutes, by the way.”  
Laughing, I stood up. “Okay, four minutes and however many seconds and we’ll cook.”

I could hear him chuckling on the other side of the door.


	36. Trente-Six

“What’s the address of your house?” I asked as I turned to the back of the notebook. Deucalion told it to me and I wrote it down. Staring at it, I furrowed my brow. “That’s not far from my apartment, actually.”  
“Your apartment?” he asked.  
“I don’t still live with my… with Gerard usually, only when we’re on hunts together. We were only supposed to stay for less than a month, I need to pay the rent in a week or so for next month.”

All of my other things were at home, more weapons, more of my belongings like my computer and all of my writing. I’d need to sort everything out. It seemed as though I’d be staying with Deucalion for the foreseeable future.

I wrote down that I was okay above the address and ripped the note out, folded it and put it in my pocket. I put the cap on the pen and set it and the notebook down on the coffee table.  
“I’m going for a walk, I’ll be back in half an hour or so,” I said as I headed to grab my jacket and put on my boots.

It was a warm afternoon, the sun was a little too bright and I regretted putting on a jacket as I started to sweat. Spotting a familiar house, I slowed my pace and stared at it. Chris might be inside, or Gerard. Maybe even Kara or her mother.

My red car was still on the drive, I had the car keys in my pocket. I could get in and drive away if I needed to. Chris’ car was parked on the road and I walked over. After quickly glancing around to check no one was watching me, I tucked the folded piece of paper beneath the windshield wiper. Hoping Chris would notice it before Gerard, I walked to the end of the street at a relatively normal pace, trying to look normal and not suspicious.

And then I started walking back to the penthouse.

It was still insane to think that he had his own house and could afford to rent a penthouse for a few months. I wasn’t sure how I had managed to get to this point in life, sneaking a note to my brother as if we were children in school. I could only wish Chris found it and understood what it was. He should recognise my handwriting, I made him read enough of my stories as children and it had only gotten a bit neater since then.

Stepping back inside the penthouse, I immediately took my jacket off and tossed it onto the bed in the guest room. I rummaged around in my bag for deodorant, I hadn’t bothered unpacking it properly at first since I hadn’t expected to stay for long. But then I discovered we weren’t staying in Beacon Hills for long and as a part of his pack, I felt obligated to move with him.

Leaving the bedroom, I spotted Deuc cooking. I could smell pasta sauce.  
“That smells quite nice,” I said as I walked over to him. He smiled.  
“How was your walk?” he asked.  
“It was good,” I replied. “Want any help?” He shook his head so I took a seat at the breakfast bar so that I could still talk to him.

“Just good? Go anywhere special?” I had the feeling he was suspicious of something.  
“I left Chris a note,” I said. I couldn’t lie to him. “Just telling him I’m okay.”  
“You gave him the address, didn’t you?”  
“Yes,” I said. “Just in case, he won’t give it to Gerard if he knows I’ll be there.” He looked distrusting, as if he didn’t believe that Chris would keep the address to himself.  
“You should have told me first,” he said. I nodded, I should have told him, it was his house, after all.  
“I’m sorry.”

It fell to almost silence as he cooked.  
“Do you trust him?” he asked.  
“Yes,” I said. Chris was the only person in my family I trusted. “I do trust him, he’s the only family I trust.” If Mom was alive, I’d trust her too.

“What is it?” He must have noticed the sadness.  
“I was just thinking about my Mom,” I said. “If she was alive, she’d be in charge of everything, things might have gone better. No one ever mentions her though.” I wish they would have, it was why I didn’t know how to deal with people dying. They just neglected to deal with it entirely.

“A shame,” he said. “I’m sure you take more after her than your father.” I smiled and laughed.  
“Yeah, I hope I do. I don’t want to be anything like my father,” I said. “But I wish they’d have talked about her more, she used to make up stories and read to me. Stories about adventurers and witches. I know I get that from her. And… you probably don’t care about this, I’m sorry.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t mind, you can talk about her if you want.”  
“Oh, okay,” I said with a smile on my face and he smiled back. “She used to be really good at chess, she had promised to teach me but she never really got the chance. I was never very good anyway. And she taught me how to bake too, I should make you her brownies, I’m the only one who learnt the recipe, Kate wasn’t bothered and Chris isn’t the type of person to bake.”

“It sounds as if you’re a lot like your mother,” Deuc said as he started put put the pasta and the sauce onto plates.  
“I guess I am,” I said with a shrug. I had never really thought that I was like my mom that much but it seemed we were a little more alike than I had first thought.  
“And I suppose you’ll have to make me those brownies once we move back to the house.”  
“Well, you’re moving back but I’ve never been there,” I pointed out.  
“I suppose so,” he said, laughing a little. “But you’ll like it, there’s an entire room dedicated to books that you make use of since I can’t.”  
“Don’t tempt me, I will sit for hours reading sometimes,” I said, shaking my head. Sometimes it got a little worrying, I tended to forget to eat or sleep or both.

He set my plate down near me and I reached over the counter to pull it in front of me. He held out a fork for me and I thanked him as I took it.

“And if you want to stay in one of the guest bedrooms, you’re very welcome to,” he said as he sat down next to me with his own plate of food.  
“What if I want to stay in your room?” I asked with a grin. He just shook his head slightly.  
“I wouldn’t complain, my love. I just thought you might like a room to yourself.”  
“I mean, I can have a room, I just have the feeling I wouldn’t be spending too much time in there,” I said honestly. I didn’t spend too much time in the room I was supposed to be staying in at the moment. I had been sleeping in his room for the last few nights.

Deuc smiled and I smiled back. “Then you’re welcome to share mine.”  
“I might take you up on that offer.”  
“You’re smiling again.” I laughed a little but it was my turn to make him speechless.  
“How can I not when I’m looking at you?”


	37. Trente-Sept

We were leaving Beacon Hills.

And while I liked the place, I had to leave it behind. Despite the fond memories, with Kara and Chris, and even Mom when she had been alive, there were bad memories too. I had been shot, I had almost died. And that ruined the good.

On the plus side, I was driving a rather nice car. It was Deucalion’s and he couldn’t exactly drive. Apparently, he had never liked it much anyway.

“Why don't you like to drive?” I asked as I stretched my arms out.  
“I'm just not fond of it, it just made some things easier,” he replied.  
“I can't imagine you driving, you know?” I said while walking around to stretch my legs. Driving for several hours straight was not fun.  
“Why not?”  
“I don’t know, you just feel too rich to be driving yourself places, don’t you have a chauffeur or something?” I said jokingly. He just shook his head slightly but there was still a smile on his face.

“You can have the car, if you want,” Deuc said. I froze up, was he serious?  
“You’re kidding, right?” I asked. He couldn’t be serious, it was a relatively new car and surely he’d rather sell it.  
“No, why would I be?”  
“You could sell it or something,” I said. “I don’t know, why would you just give it away?”  
“I’m not, I’m giving it to you specifically,” he said as his hand ran along the side of the car. “You don’t have a car at the moment.”

He had a point, sort of. I did have a car, it was around two hours behind us, in Beacon Hills.  
“I do have a car though,” I said. I’d feel bad having his car anyway, especially for free.  
“Do you have a car you can drive?”  
“No…” I said quietly. “But that’s not the point.”  
“Besides, Gerard knows what your car looks like, he might use it to try to find you if he thinks you’re alive,” said Deuc as his hand grabbed onto the handle of the door.

Frowning, I started walking around to the other side of the car, reluctant to sit down for another few hours.  
“Do you think he’s suspicious?” I asked.  
“Of course he is,” said Deuc as he opened the car door. “He never saw your dead body and the man isn’t sane.” His response surprised me. I hadn’t considered that, I had thought that he would just listen to Chris.  
“I guess so.”

Taking a deep breath, I pulled the car door open and sat down.  
“How far have we got to go?” I asked as I shut the door. He sat in the passenger seat and shut the door before answering.  
“About eight hours, I think.” Groaning, I threw my head back against the headrest.  
“It’s going to kill me,” I muttered before fastening my seatbelt.

“I hope not, I’d have to call one of the others. Or just walk.” I stared at him for a moment and watched as he fastened his own seatbelt.  
“Right, you don’t want me to die because you’d have to walk?” I said. I could see the smirk on his face but I pretended to be insulted.  
“No, it would be a shame,” he said.  
“It would be a shame if next time we stopped, I drove off without you,” I said as I started the car. He chuckled.

It was quiet for a moment and I was about to pull out of the rest area when he spoke.  
“I’d miss you really.”  
Smiling, I leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I’d hope you would after all this.”

I pulled out of the rest area, a huge smile on my face. I couldn’t deal with music at the moment, I just didn’t feel like listening to any of the CDs he had in the car.  
“You can have the car.”  
“I don’t want your car,” I said as I pulled out onto the road.  
“When’s your birthday?”  
I smiled, realising what he was trying to do. “I’m not having your car as a birthday present, as nice as your car is.” I said. I couldn’t accept a car from him, not after everything he had done already. “I’m not having it, it’s your car.”

“I can’t use it,” he said with an exasperated sigh.  
“Give it to Charles or Tasha or someone.”  
“Charles doesn’t drive any more and Tasha has her own car,” he said.  
“Doesn’t drive any more?” I asked.  
“He’s too nervous.”  
“Okay, don’t give it to Charles then but I already have a car.” I wondered why Charles was too nervous to drive, he did seem a little anxious when I had met him but not that bad.

“Tasha is currently driving her car,” he argued. “And you can’t drive yours and you’re driving mine.”  
“I am not having your car,” I repeated. “I’d feel bad, you’ve already given me a place to stay and you paid for all of my food and everything, I can’t accept a car too.”  
“Liza, you don’t have to pay me back for those things, I’ve told you that before,” he said.

“But I’d still feel bad,” I protested. “I mean, I don’t even know how I can even thank you for saving my life.”  
“Being alive is enough for me, you don’t need to do anything else,” he said seriously and I took a deep breath. I wished I wasn’t driving but that meant sharing a car with some of the other Betas and that was the last thing either of us wanted to do.

“I’m still not having your car,” I said, sticking firmly to my decision.  
“Liza?”  
“Yes?”  
“When’s your birthday?” he asked again.  
“You tried that already,” I sighed. I was quiet for a moment and then answered: “September 21st. But, I’m not having your car as a present.”  
“No, you can have it as a Christmas present if you’re that insistent.” Glancing over at him, I could see his smile but reminded myself to keep my eyes on the road.

“I don’t care how much you like your tea, I need coffee for this.”


	38. Trente-Huit

As soon as we reached his house, I helped to take all of the things out of the back of the car and into the house before being pointed in the direction of the guest room where I would be staying. Tamika and Charles helped while Tasha disappeared off to find her fiance.

The house was on the edge of town, surrounded by woods. There were no neighbours, the only house nearby was apparently falling apart and practically abandoned but there was a ‘for sale’ sign in their front garden.

After setting my things down in my room, I headed downstairs and sat on the sofa.  
“You have a nice house,” I said to Deuc as he sat in the armchair with a cup of tea in his hand.  
“Thank you,” he said as he drank his tea. “Could you get me a coaster, please?”  
“Sure.” Spotting the coasters in a fancy wooden holder in the centre of the table, I leaned forward and passed it to him. Deuc thanked me before placing the coaster on the glass table and then the cup on the coaster. He seemed to really like fancy glass coffee tables.

“I need to head back to my apartment, I need to get my stuff and pay the rent and figure out where I’m living,” I said. There was a lot to do. And for once, none of it involved hunting and it was a relief. “Where am I living now?”  
“It’s up to you,” he said with a slight shrug. He leaned back in the chair and relaxed. I ended up lifting my feet onto the sofa and curling up. My eyes were sore and I was tired. But I didn’t want to head up to the guest room. I hadn’t slept alone in a while and I didn’t really feel like starting now.  
“I don’t know where I want to live.”

As much as I loved my apartment, I had been planning on trying to find somewhere else since the main road made it far too loud to concentrate sometimes.  
“You don’t have to decide now, you have to give them some time before you leave, right?”  
“Yeah, a 30 day notice,” I said. I had a month to decide on whether I was staying in the apartment or if I was moving in with Deucalion.

“You can use my car to drive there if you need to,” he said as he leaned forward and reached for his cup of tea again.  
“I might,” I said. “I’m still not having your car.”  
“I know,” he said with a smile on his face as he sipped his tea. “You’re being rather stubborn about it.”

“Because you’ve done a lot more than you realise for me,” I said, trying to hold back from yawning. “You’ve let me stay with you for half a month and eat your food and everything without paying.”  
“Because you don’t need to pay me for that,” he said, shaking his head as he set the cup down on the coaster.

“And you saved my li-”  
“I’ve already said you don’t have to thank me for that,” he said, cutting in. He sounded a little annoyed, probably because we had a similar conversion earlier in the car  
“It feels like I should,” I said with a sigh. “Thank you just doesn’t seem to do it justice.”  
“Being alive is more than enough, Liza. I like you and I couldn’t sit by and watch you die,” he said. I stared at him, he really meant it.

“I still feel bad and are you sure you won’t take anything for the penthouse?” He shook his head. “Or the food?” He shook his head again.  
“No, Liza. You’ve helped me cook and you’ve taught me things I would have taken a lot longer to find out otherwise. That is more than enough for me,” he said.

He motioned for me to move over to him and reluctantly, I stood up and walked over to the armchair, wondering what he was doing. His eyes glowed red for a moment and then he reached out and held my hand.  
“You do not have to thank me for saving your life.”  
“Okay,” I said softly, not sure what else to say. I’d have to push those thoughts out of my mind and try to forget about them.

I rubbed my eyes with my free hand and yawned.  
“It seems I’m tired,” I muttered. Everything was a little too serious so I figured I’d attempt to lighten the mood a little. “Surprising after driving for eight hours, don’t you think?”  
He laughed. “Very surprising indeed, I can’t think why driving for eight hours might possibly make you tired.”  
“No idea,” I said while grinning.

“Perhaps you should sit down,” he said but didn’t let go of my hand.  
“Where do you suggest I sit if you’re not going to let go of my hand?” I asked. He was smirking.

And then I ended up sitting between his legs with my back resting against his chest. I leaned back and looked up to my right to look at him. I never thought this would have been an outcome of that walk I had taken to his penthouse. I had watched the sunset and had expected to lose my sight, or at worst, my life. Or even torture.

But I never thought that after a month or so, I’d be in his house, his actual house and not just the penthouse. I had never expected to like him so much and hate Gerard so much. I never thought I’d be a werewolf or enjoy kissing an Alpha who until recently, I thought had given my uncle the Bite.

“You weren’t like this, when I first met you,” I said, letting my fingers trace along his jawline. “You were a little scary, and so obviously angry.”  
“I’m still angry,” he said.  
“I know,” I said before yawning again. “But you haven’t been like that towards me since, you even said goodnight.” And I hadn’t replied that first night.  
“I saw no point in being cruel to you.”

“It goes beyond just that,” I said, laughing a little. It went way beyond that, his Beta had wanted him to claw my throat out and he didn’t do that. He didn’t hurt me at all, except for when I asked him to. “You even remembered I was lactose intolerant afterwards, next to no one remembers that. And… and just… I wasn’t expecting you to be so nice to me. I expected you to be cold and maybe shout a bit and just generally distrusting.”

And instead that had been my father. He hadn’t trusted me, he had been cold, unforgiving and definitely loud.

“But you weren’t, Gerard was. He must like projecting his personality on other people or something,” I rambled. I knew I was rambling and I knew I was desperately trying to procrastinate going to sleep in the guest bedroom, if that was even where I was sleeping. But I carried on talking anyway.

“And you weren’t the killer I had thought you to be,” he said honestly. “You never have killed anyone, have you?”  
I shook my head. “No, I couldn’t bring myself to.” Gerard thought I was weak and Kate thought I had too much empathy.  
“And you weren’t rude to me, you didn’t treat me like an idiot.”  
“Because you aren’t,” I said before he could carry on.  
He chuckled. “I’m glad you think so, a few people might disagree since I met with Gerard.”

“I don’t, you were just hopeful and naive to who he is. I was too,” I said before kissing his cheek. “But we’re not now.”  
“Let’s not talk about him,” he said and I nodded as I yawned. Gerard Argent was not who I wanted to think about. “How long is it going to be before you admit defeat and go to bed?”  
I laughed. “I don’t know, I just don’t want to be alone.”  
“You say that a lot, actually,” he said softly. He sounded sad and it hurt a little, I didn’t like hearing sadness in his voice.

“I’ve lost a lot of people, I’m just scared to be alone, I guess, in case it stays that way,” I admitted. Mom was gone. I couldn’t talk to Kara or Chris, I couldn’t argue with Kate. I couldn’t talk to Gerard, not that I wanted to. “It’s probably stupid or something but yeah, I’m just a little scared.”  
“It’s not stupid,” he said and I smiled. “And I’ll be here for you. And I don’t care which room you sleep in or if you want me to sleep with you, you can just ask, my love.”

I couldn’t stop smiling. He really couldn’t be angry at me, could he? Maybe he couldn’t blind me because his anger was directed at Gerard and not me.  
“Can I sleep with you tonight then?”  
“If you can give me a few minutes to finish my tea then yes, happily.”


	39. Trente-Neuf

Opening the door to my apartment, I took a deep breath and stepped in. It smelt familiar, but not quite like home. I wasn’t sure what home was at the moment.

Shutting the door behind me, I took a few minutes to just walk around. The last time I had been here, things had been so different. I was still part of a family, I was human.

Looking at the photo of my mom on the window sill, I sighed and wondered what she would have thought about all of this. I didn’t start hunter training until after she had passed away. Would she have noticed how much I disliked it and how stressful it had been? Would she have let me stop being a hunter if it meant being happier?

I guessed it didn’t matter, she wasn’t here. But I wished she was. And I wished Chris and Gerard talked about her more. As soon as her funeral was done it was like she had never existed and I hated it.

I missed her so much.

I had appreciated Deucalion letting me talk about her, I hadn’t talked about her in a long time. Chris got upset and, unsurprisingly, Gerard just yelled at me not to mention her. Kate didn’t remember her well enough and didn’t seem to care anyway.

Thinking back to last night, I smiled to myself. Deuc did like me and he really seemed to care. Staring at my computer, I realised I’d need someone’s help to carry it. That was, if I was even moving into his house permanently.

I had no idea what I was doing.

It was terrifying, even without the new problem of losing control on full moons. Adding that into the mix made it almost impossible to manage.

But I had Deuc. He was keeping to his promise of not letting me hurt anyone so far. It seemed like he had no intention of breaking that promise any time soon.

I checked what food was in my fridge and cupboards. There wasn't much, only a few tins of food. I hadn't bothered shopping before I left, I wouldn't have been home to eat any of it.

Hearing a car going far too fast, I stared at the window. I wouldn't miss the place too much but I was used to it. It was familiar, and oddly comforting.

I figured I'd take some things with me, notebooks with story ideas in and stationery. I grabbed a few of the audiobooks I had and some CDs. Despite having the Beatles stuck in my head more often than not, I had missed listening to Nirvana and Billy Idol. The computer would have to be taken another time. If I finished the handwritten draft first, I could edit it while I typed it up.

Turning on the radio, I hummed along to the songs playing as I cleaned up a little. I wasn’t sure what else I’d need to take with me. I didn’t know what else to do. Once I’d finished cleaning, I turned the radio off and the tv on.

After flicking through the channels and finding nothing satisfying to watch, I turned it off and sighed. I hadn’t watched tv in ages, I had been too preoccupied with dancing and writing and being a werewolf, among other things. Maybe I could write.

Standing up, I headed over to my desk and sat at it. I had a notebook open on an article I had been trying to write on the desk. I read through it and sighed, articles weren’t really my thing, they never were. I drew a squiggly line underneath the end of what I had written and tried to write.

Another loud car that was certainly speeding passed by me and I shook my head and sighed. Yet another car passed by and I just held my head in my hands. Even without the cars, I doubted I would be able to concentrate.

The apartment wasn’t too big, the living room was crammed with the desk and the couch and tv. It was hard to believe it had felt lived in but now it just felt bare and lonely. I only had one photo of my mom, and a photograph of Chris, Allison and Victoria. Allison had been three in that photo and I was fairly sure it had been the last time Gerard had seen her. I hadn’t seen her in a year and I doubted I’d be seeing her any time soon.

As I looked around from the chair, I realised something. The apartment didn’t really feel lived in. Maybe it was because I had been away for a month or maybe it was because of everything that had happened. But it just felt empty. I only had those two photographs, I didn’t have ornaments or trinkets or anything like that. I didn’t even have a vase for flowers. If Deucalion was going to buy me more flowers, I had the feeling I should invest in a pretty vase to put them in.

I sighed again and tried to blink back tears but one fell onto my notebook. This new life was lonely. I couldn’t turn to my family or my best friend and half of Deuc’s pack didn’t seem to like me much. I couldn’t blame them, I was a hunter and an Argent. Legally, I was still Elizabeth Argent even if Deucalion called me Liza Blakesley. And I had shot at Jack and other werewolves, Tasha was right about that.

Part of me was still scared he was just using me as an easy way to get to my family. I didn’t want to be used, least of all by him.

I shut the notebook and put it in the desk drawer, I wouldn’t need another notebook yet and if I did, I could fetch it. I grabbed my bag with all of the things inside and then headed to the kitchen to grab the box of cappuccino sachets I had in the cupboard. I needed coffee. After putting them in my bag, I found out my keys and headed to the door. I paused in the doorway and then grabbed the photograph of my mom from the window sill. That was coming with me too, I wasn’t losing all of my family.


	40. Quarante

I shut the door behind me and hung my jacket on the free peg.  
“I thought you were going to be out for most of the day,” Deucalion said as I walked to the kitchen.  
“I was planning on it but… got kind of bored,” I said. And lonely. But I had the feeling he already knew that. I took the coffee sachets from my bag and put them in one of the cupboards. “This house is no longer coffee free, I brought my coffee with me.”

He chuckled and I looked over at him. He had a box on the floor which he was kneeling next to.  
“What are you doing?” I asked as I walked over to him.  
“I’ve been trying to unpack a few things, it seems I’m a little stuck with books,” he said with a sigh.  
“I can help.”

“Are you sure? I could just ask someone tomorrow,” he said.  
“I have nothing better to do other than feel sad and miss people, I might as well,” I said, forcing a smile. It felt like I was trying to convince myself that I was okay more than anything.  
“Thank you,” he said as he lifted the box from the floor as if it weighed no more than a piece of paper.

He set the box down on the desk in his study. Bookcases lined the walls and were almost completely filled but it was clear there were some books missing as some were tilted and leaning against others.  
“You weren’t kidding when you said you had a lot of books,” I said, staring at them in awe. Like the others, a lot of them were old leather bound books, some with titles on their spine, some without. Some of them looked pristine with shiny gold lettering and bright coloured leather.

“Why would I be?” he asked as he started taking the books out of the box and setting them on the desk. “They’re all arranged alphabetically by the book’s name, not the author, A starts in the top left and it goes down the bookshelf and then across. Z is in the bottom right corner.” He motioned to the bookcase behind him on the right of the door and I let out a long breath.  
“This is… insane,” I said as I picked up the first book. It was a book on Banshees.

“But why not the author?” I asked with a furrowed brow. I walked over to the shelves with the book in hand and found where it belongs.  
“A lot of these books were written by Argents and other hunters. I don’t care about who wrote it, I care about the information inside of the books,” he said. “There’s Bestiaries from hunting families long gone. Even books from families of werewolves, noting down their alliances with other packs and how easily all of it can be broken.”   
“Sounds interesting,” I said honestly.

After putting the Banshee book on the shelf, I was handed more books by Deucalion. One of them had something in Latin written on the side and the other had nothing at all.  
“This one says…” I paused to try to figure out the word’s pronunciation. “Veneficium?”  
“Witchcraft,” he said and I furrowed my brow and turned to look at him. “It means witchcraft in Latin.”  
“What don’t you know?” I said with a laugh before heading to the opposite side of the room.  
“A lot of things,” he said with a sigh. I had the feeling there was a lot more to his response than I knew.

“What if there’s nothing on the spine?” I asked as I slotted the book on witchcraft into its proper place.  
“Open it. If there’s no title page, there should be writing on a page near the beginning,” he explained. I thanked him as I looked for the title page, there was none but there was the title ‘Kanima - Alpha Form’ written in a neat cursive.  
“There’s writing,” I said as I looked at the books to find where the book on Kanima’s Alpha forms should be. “Is it your writing?”

“Possibly, what does it look like?”  
“Neat and fancy?” I offered. I wasn’t sure how else to describe it as I pulled out a book with a blank spine. That book was on Kanima’s Beta forms so the book in my hand had to be before that.  
“That really narrows it down,” he said drily as he moved the box to the floor.  
I sighed. “It’s curly but not overly so. And it’s a book on Kanima’s.”  
“Ah, yes, I did write that there,” he said, nodding as he moved the stack of books away from the edge of the desk.

“Your handwriting is very pretty, I’m a little jealous,” I said before getting more books from him.  
“Of my handwriting?” he asked. I could hear the confusion over why I would be jealous of his handwriting, of all things.  
“Yes, I can’t join up most of my letters and still have them look like letters,” I said. A lot of the time it looked like a three year old had somehow managed to get their hand on a pen. “And I forget to cross my letter t’s a lot which is annoying when I read back through because I misread them as l’s.”  
“I imagine that would be annoying,” he said.

I was looking at the bookshelf but I was almost certain he was trying not to laugh, just from the tone of his voice. Turning back to him to get another few books, I could see the smile on his face.   
“You can laugh, you know,” I said while placing the books back, occasionally flicking through the first few pages to find a title or name. “But yes, it’s annoying when my character has their food on a plale instead of a plate.”

He laughed and leaned against the desk and I smiled wider.  
“What is a plale?” he asked.  
“No idea, maybe we should name a new creature that.”  
“I’d feel bad for the creature,” he said and I giggled.  
“So would I, actually,” I said. “Maybe we shouldn’t name the next new supernatural creature a plale then.”  
“It might be for the best,” he said as he passed me more books. Smiling, I turned and started to put them on the shelves. He really did have a nice laugh.


	41. Quarante Et Un

I headed back to the guest room to change into pajamas. Seeing the photograph of my mom, I picked it up and brought it with me as I headed back to Deuc’s bedroom. It was small, even in the frame, and surely he wouldn’t mind too much.

Shutting the bedroom door behind me, I noticed he was already lying on top of the covers. I walked over to the side of the bed that I had effectively claimed the night before and sat on the edge of the bed. After standing the photograph up in its frame on the bedside table, I smiled.

“What’s that?” he asked.  
“A photo of my Mom,” I said. “You don’t mind me putting it here, do you?”  
“No, why would I?” he asked. I shrugged. I wasn’t sure.  
“She was a hunter,” I said as I lifted my legs up off of the floor and lay down next to him.  
“She’s never hurt me, as far as I’m aware,” he said. “And I have no reason to hate her. If you want to put her picture there, you can.”  
“Thank you,” I said, moving over on the bed to kiss his cheek.

“You said, a few weeks ago now, I think,” he started. “That you hadn’t been with anyone for three years.”  
“When did I say that?” I asked, furrowing my brow. I couldn’t remember telling him that but apparently I had.  
“Not long before Tasha came to the penthouse and you told her we had been too busy dancing to notice she wanted to visit,” he said and I nodded. My cheeks heated up as I remembered what we had been doing.  
“Yeah, I remember that now,” I said, laughing a little.

Looking over at him, I could see his smile.  
“I’m a little curious.”  
“About my ex?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.  
“A little,” he said. “But you don’t have to talk about them, if you don’t want to. It’s probably a little odd that I’m asking you.”

I took his hand and turned to look at him.  
“I don’t mind. Her name was Jeanette, we met at work, before we both quit together cause our manager was sexist and a bastard,” I said with a laugh. “She was nice, we kept talking to each other and ended up going on a date, we'll, more like a few. She had such a nice smile and… she was great. We were together for a year.”  
“But it ended,” he said softly.  
I nodded. “Yeah, it did.”

Taking a deep breath, I squeezed his hand.  
“We had plans, we moved in together and we were planning on adopting a cat. But… she wanted to meet my father,” I said. Deuc seemed to know and his other hand moved so he was holding mine with both of his. “As my girlfriend. Gerard isn’t exactly open-minded. And our family dinners are already bad, every time we have them he just interrogates people, trying to see if they’re supernatural or if they’re… bad, by whatever impossible standards he has.”

“You’re not straight.” I had a feeling he would say something like that. And I could only wonder how he felt, I wasn’t very good at telling people’s emotions.  
I took a deep breath. “No.”   
“And he doesn’t know?” he asked.  
“No, and never will,” I said. I guessed he couldn’t disown me for having a girlfriend now. “But she broke up with me because I couldn’t tell him I had a girlfriend, I was too scared of being alone. Seems like that hasn’t really gone away.”

“I’m not going to leave you alone,” he said softly and I smiled.  
“You’re not going to make a comment about threesomes or how I’m just confused?” I asked. I had gotten that a lot before.  
“Why? Do you want a threesome?” he asked with such a serious tone I couldn’t help but laugh. I wasn’t expecting him to ask that with a straight face.  
“I don’t know what to say to you,” I said between laughs. “I just wasn’t expecting that.”  
He chuckled. “Good. And you have nothing to worry about, my love.”

I moved and pressed a kiss to his cheek.  
“I’m glad,” I said. I rested my head against his shoulder. “A few people didn’t react as well.”  
He sighed. “I have a feeling another family member may be included.”  
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “Namely Kate. I used to argue with her a lot anyway, it just made it worse, I think.”

“She’s the youngest of you, isn’t she?” Deuc asked. I hummed and nodded even though I was leaning against his shoulder. “I thought younger people tended to be a bit more open minded.”  
“Yeah, but she’s too much like… like Gerard, that’s why, I think,” I said. I frowned and snuggled closer to him. “She didn’t like the idea of us not being able to have children, can’t really adopt together. Can’t really pass down the hunting tradition.” It really was a little bit like a cult, taught to believe certain things and they weren’t fond of people marrying people who weren’t hunters.

“And you think werewolf families are bad,” he said, chuckling.  
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t any more. It’s just… it annoys me a little that I could never marry her if I wanted to. In fact, in some countries, I’d be arrested or killed for it.”  
“That’s… horrifying, actually,” he said quietly.  
“Yeah. I guess it doesn’t really matter though, no one thinks I like both because I’m kind of with you,” I said. I hated that people assumed I was straight just because I was dating a man. “I still do but people can’t understand that apparently.”  
“Only some people,” he said. “And I’m not one of them.”  
“I know,” I said, smiling as I spoke.

I couldn’t put into words how glad I was that he didn’t think of me differently. Only Kara had managed that so far, Chris… Chris didn’t really understand it but he had tried to be supportive.

“You’re wonderful,” I whispered. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “And I am utterly infatuated with you, you know that? It’s borderline annoying. All I could think about in those seven days back… back there, when I couldn’t leave, all I could think about was the little things. I couldn’t listen to the Beatles, I couldn’t write the story with the waterfall, I couldn’t read to you or drink tea or dance or… or see you. I thought I wouldn’t see you again and I really didn’t like that.”

“I missed you reading to me,” Deuc said. He was smiling a little. “And I missed teaching you how to dance. I just missed… you. I missed you.”  
“I missed you too,” I said honestly. Even if I didn’t realise it at the time, I had missed him a lot. “But we don’t have to any more, right?”  
“No,” he said before pressing a kiss to my forehead. “But we should probably sleep.”  
I nodded with a grin on my face. “Yeah. Goodnight, Deuc.”  
“Goodnight, Liza, my love.”

After a few moments, something was bothering me.  
“The light is still on,” I sighed as I opened my eyes.  
“It’s not going to make a difference to me,” he said. Reluctantly, I moved away from him and I switched the light off before lying next to him. It was far too warm to sleep under the covers, but not warm enough to stop us from sleeping so close to each other. “Sweet dreams.”  
“You too,” I mumbled but I was already drifting off to sleep.


	42. Quarante-Deux

Thankful for a cup of coffee, I eagerly drank half of it before deciding to savour it. I didn’t know when I would next have the chance to buy coffee. There was a knock at the door and I put my cup of coffee down on a coaster before going to answer the door.

“Charles, hi,” I greeted. I took a step back and opened the door wide. “Come in, Deuc’s just upstairs.” He walked inside and I shut the door behind him.  
“Hey, I was wondering if you needed any help with unpacking. I didn’t have too much to unpack so…”  
“Help would be appreciated,” said Deuc as he reached the bottom of the stairs. “But I don’t have much left to unpack, Liza might want some help though.”

I raised my eyebrows and nodded.  
“If you don’t mind,” I added on. Charles shook his head.  
“No, I don’t mind,” he said. I smiled and he smiled back.  
“I’m just going to finish my coffee and then we can drive over to my place, if that’s okay with you?” I said while heading to the kitchen.  
“Drive?” he repeated, his voice a little shakily. He followed me to the kitchen while Deuc sat in the living room.

“Yeah, I can drive, if Deuc doesn’t mind me driving his car again,” I said as I grabbed my coffee cup.  
“I tried to give you the car, I’m not going to mind you driving it,” he said loudly.  
“I’m not having your car!” I said back, equally as loud. I was going to be stubborn about it. Charles laughed a little and I offered him a drink but he shook his head.

Once I finished the coffee, I said goodbye to Deuc and grabbed the car keys and the keys for my apartment so we could drive there. During the drive, Charles was on edge. He had seemed like a rather nervous man anyway but he seemed even more anxious while in the car. Part of me wondered if something bad had happened involving cars. Deuc had said a lot of his pack were turned because they were injured and dying.

I parked in the parking lot for the block of apartments and locked the car as we headed to the door.  
“My sister used to live near here,” he said.  
“Really?” I asked as I opened the door to the building. I held it out to him and he nodded as he headed inside.  
“Yeah, a few streets away, the apartments were new when she moved in,” he said.  
“Oh, nice.” The apartments I was living in were fairly old, I wasn’t sure how long exactly but the outside of the building was falling to pieces.

After unlocking the door, I let Charles in and shut the door behind me.  
“Wow, this is small,” he said. Glancing over at him, he looked away. “Sorry, I don’t mean to-”  
“No, it’s fine,” I said, shaking my head. The apartment was very small but I hadn’t really minded it since it tended to just be me. “I know it’s small, I don’t exactly earn much.”  
“What do you do?” he asked.  
“Freelance writer, articles, short stories. Whatever sells really. Haven’t exactly been doing great lately though.”  
He hummed and nodded. “I’m a lawyer,” he said. “An attorney, specifically. We have a family business and everything.”  
“That’s kind of cool,” I said honestly. “Do you like it?”  
“Yeah, I do.”

We stood awkwardly for a moment and then I spoke.  
“Um, I mostly just need help with the computer, Deuc said I could put it in the guest bedroom, I have all my writing on there so it’s kind of useful,” I explained. “Do you mind crying it to the car? I’ll hold the doors open for you?”  
“Sure, I don’t mind at all.”

It didn’t take too long to put the computer in the car. I headed back inside and searched the cupboards for any more coffee that might have been lurking around at the back. Unfortunately, there were none. I headed back to my bedroom quickly and pulled out a tub hidden in a shoe box under the bed. Inside was all of my savings. I took out the money for the rent and a little extra for food and other things and put it in my purse. I hid the rest back in the tub, in the shoe box under my bed. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need any of it.

Leaving the bedroom, I saw Charles standing by the window, looking at the photo of Chris and his own family.  
“He’s a hunter,” he said quietly.  
I took a deep breath. “Yeah, but my brother.”  
“Yeah, I know,” he said. He turned to look at me. “You’re an Argent.”

“Used to be, I guess. But… I sort of ran away and got disowned,” I said with a frown on my face. I hoped he didn’t act like Tasha, I wanted to be friendly with them, or at the very least civil.  
“Why did you run away?”  
“I didn’t want to be a hunter. You were there, when I went to Deucalion, I think,” I said as I walked to the front door. He furrowed his brow for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, those three days changed a lot more than I realised.”

“Tasha just seems to think he’s doing it to annoy the Argents, but I don’t think he is, is he?” said Charles as he turned and followed me to the door. My desk looked a little odd without the computer there.  
“I hope not and he says he doesn’t but I haven’t really got the hang of the telling if someone is lying part of being a werewolf yet,” I said, laughing a little. Knowing Deucalion, I could be perfect at telling if someone was lying but he’d have a way to hide it.

“I know it’s weird, an Argent werewolf who hasn’t killed themselves,” I said. I let out a shaky breath. “But… I don’t want to be that. I want to be myself, I want to be a writer who dances and is an absolute mess because everything is always changing.”  
He laughed and smiled. “It’s fine, I’m kind of a mess too,” he said. “I haven’t quite been the same since… well, I was in a car accident.”

That did explain a lot. His smile morphed into a frown as I locked the door to the apartment.  
“Is that why you’re so…?” I trailed off, not sure of how to word it.  
“Nervous? Yeah. I just… yeah, I was in a car accident a few years ago and I was the only one to survive, and that was only because of Deucalion.”  
“It seems he’s not as bad as the hunters kept making him out to be,” I said with a sigh. He saved Charles’ life, and mine. And probably most of his packs’ too. And to think, a month or so ago, I had thought he was a monster.

We headed to the car and I sat down.  
“I have to go and pay my rent for next month and then get coffee because that first one was definitely not enough for me,” I said. The seatbelt clicked into place and Charles’ did the same. “I know it’s not much, but can I get you a coffee or something? As a thank you?”  
“A hot chocolate would be nice, if you don’t mind.”  
“I don’t mind at all. And hot chocolate it is then.”


	43. Quarante-Trois

After saying goodbye to Charles, I felt a small searing pain go across my stomach.  
“What the-” I was cut off by my own whimper as I clutched my stomach. This wasn’t supposed to happen, this only happened when I had dairy. And I thought that being a werewolf might have meant I wasn’t lactose intolerant any more. Feeling another pain, I squeezed my eyes shut and collapsed onto the sofa.

It hurt.

But when had I even had dairy? Cheese was usually fine as long as it was mild but I hadn’t eaten any cheese. Nor had I had ice cream which was occasionally the culprit of some bloating and mild cramps.

The coffee.

I must have had milk in the coffee and I had forgotten to ask for alternatives, not that many places had them anyway. Frowning, I pulled my knees to my chest and cursed.

“Liza?”

That was Deuc. There was another sharp pain and tears rolled down my cheeks. I thought this would have been fixed.

“My love, you’re in pain,” he said softly. The sofa sunk as he sat next to me and his hand rested on my arm.  
“Have I mentioned I hate lactose intolerance?” I said through gritted teeth as I looked over at him. There was immediate relief from the pain and I saw the black lines on his hand and they reminded me of veins. “That’s what that is.”

I had seen him do it before, back at the animal clinic. The pain hadn’t disappeared much last time but it seemed to make a lot of difference this time. Deuc looked uncomfortable for a moment and then then he stopped drawing my pain. It had made it a lot more bearable.

“Is that an Alpha thing?” I asked quietly as I moved and leaned against him, relaxing a little.  
“No,” he said, shaking his head slightly. His hand still rested on my arm. “I can teach you another time, if you’d like.”  
I nodded. “That would be nice, thank you.”

I took a deep breath and sighed. “I thought this would have gone away,” I said honestly. “Should it have?”  
“I’m not sure,” he said. It looked as though he was thinking. “Wolves have no need for milk after they’re weaned from their mother, perhaps there’s nothing to heal.” My only argument was that I was a werewolf, not a normal wolf, but I didn’t have the effort to voice that.

“I hate milk,” I muttered. He chuckled and his hand moved from my arm to wrap around me. “Most of the time it doesn’t even taste nice. At least ice cream is worth the mild discomfort.”

“I wasn’t expecting it to be that painful,” he said.  
“What?”  
“I wasn’t expecting you to be in that much pain,” he said. He sounded sad but I was still a little confused. “I know different people tolerate different levels of pain but… I wasn’t expecting to feel any discomfort.” But he had, I had seen it on his face.  
“Yeah, it sucks,” I muttered. It was starting to feel a little worse.

“I think that usually, you offer ladies ice cream to cheer them up but I feel that might not be the best thing right now,” he said. I shook my head and then internally sighed at myself.  
“I just shook my head,” I said. He had called me a lady but I didn’t feel like one. Being a lady implied I was somewhat fancy, which I wasn’t.  
“I know,” he said with a smile on his face. He pressed a kiss to my forehead and I smiled.

Wincing, I instinctively curled up again as there was more painful cramps. But this time, I noticed my claws.  
“Uh, claws?” I asked, furrowing my brow as I stared at my hands.  
“It’s because you don’t have an anchor,” he said. Of course it was. “Take my hand.”  
I looked at him and then down to his hand. “No, I’ll… I’ll manage.” I didn’t want to cause him discomfort like last time.

“Liza, I know when you’re lying.” Sighing, I reached out and took his hand and watched as the black veins drew pain away. I let out a shaky breath, grateful for the relief.  
“Thank you.”  
“Maybe avoid having milk in your coffee?” he suggested with a smirk. He had stopped taking the pain but he still held my hand.  
“Definitely.” I nodded and leaned up to kiss his cheek. “You really are something else.”

He didn’t say anything and there was another cramp, but it was significantly less painful than the other ones. At least I wasn’t bleeding on top of all this.  
“Have you ever wondered what a period is like?” I asked with a grin.  
He shook his head. “Not really, why?”  
“Well, imagine that pain but for several days,” I said, laughing a little. It was sadly accurate, at least it was for me. “Oh, and also? You’re bleeding and that can last for up to a week.”

Deuc just shook his head a little.  
“I can see why you don’t like them very much,” he said as he pulled me a little closer. I laughed a little again.  
“Don’t get me wrong, some people get nice periods. I will forever be jealous of Kara and her painless three day periods,” I said with a frown. “But that is when you get me ice cream. I can deal with the mild discomfort if I’m already having cramps.”

He chuckled a little and then kissed my cheek. “You never cease to amaze me, my love.” I smiled and then winced at another cramp.  
“Good, otherwise I’d be rather boring,” I said with a grin. He kissed my cheek again.  
“You couldn’t be boring if you tried,” Deuc said. “Now how can I help without taking your pain? I can only take so much, I’m afraid.”  
“Could you just hold me?” I asked quietly, not sure what his answer would be. “And talk?”  
“Of course, my love,” he said and I smiled.

I always seemed to smile when I looked at him, I just felt… comfortable with him. In a way I never could, even with Kara. And I knew he’d keep me safe, as he had already been doing.

I had the feeling I was falling in love with him.


	44. Quarante-Quatre

There were three missed calls on his phone and I told him they were from Jack. He sighed and then there was loud knocking.  
“That would be Jack,” he said as he headed to the door. He was already dressed while I sat on his side of the bed by the bedside table, still in pajamas. If Jack was here, I probably should get dressed.  
“I’ll be down in a minute or two,” I said, watching him leave.

I put his phone on his bedside table, I’d felt a little rude looking at who the missed calls were from, even if he had asked me to look. Still, I needed to get dressed and headed to the guest bedroom where the majority of my clothes were being kept.

Once I’d changed into clean clothes, I headed downstairs. I could hear a voice who I presumed was Jack’s before I even reached the stairs.  
“Two wendigos, dead. This is weird!” he exclaimed.  
“It is unusual.”  
“Unusual? It’s almost unheard of! What’s killing them?” asked Jack.  
“You’ve been here with Timothy while we were in Beacon Hills, what do you think it is?”

I started to head downstairs with a frown on my face. Two dead wendigos? Something was definitely weird about that. Wendigos were as powerful as Alpha werewolves and Alphas were fairly hard to kill.  
“I don’t know, that’s what scares me,” said Jack. There was an emotion that I could smell as I walked into the room. Fear. He glanced at me before looking at Deucalion. “We don’t get wendigos around here, Deuc.”  
“I know, Jack. We’ll find out what’s killing them and we’ll deal with it before whatever it is kills someone else.”

“You think it’s one person?” I asked.  
“I doubt it’s hunters but I suppose there’s a possibility it’s a group or a pack,” he said with a slight shrug.  
“What do we do then?” asked Jack. He was tall and muscly with relatively short, bleached hair.  
“We take them out one by one,” he said rather coldly. Jack just nodded.

“And um, there’s something else,” he said, a little more nervously. He glanced at me again but I didn’t leave the room, I had no reason to. “Tasha’s been more agitated and angry since you’ve come back from Beacon Hills. Do you want to explain that? And whatever the hell else happened? You’re blind, Marco is dead, so’s Becca and the Argents killed the others?”

Deuc took a deep breath and motioned for Jack to sit down. Jack shook his head and stayed standing.  
“I tried to make peace with Gerard Argent, he killed three and blinded me.”  
“How?”  
“Flashbang arrows,” he said. There was that coldness again, the anger. And I winced. I’d seen them used to temporarily blind and stun werewolves. “Directing into my eyes.”

“And Marco and Becca?” Deuc didn’t answer Jack.  
“Self-defence,” I said for him.  
“I didn’t ask you,” he snapped. “But self-defence?”  
“They thought I wasn’t suited to my current position and tried to relieve me from it,” he said with a chilling smile. He hadn’t been lying when he had said he was still angry.

Jack slowly walked towards him, his fists clenched at his sides.  
“Becca was my best friend,” he said.  
“I know,” said Deuc. “But I think being a blind man suits me more than death at the moment.” Jack huffed like a child and stopped a foot away from Deucalion. I had the feeling he was only doing it because Deuc couldn’t see him.

“And the Argent current standing in your living room?”  
“Is no longer an Argent,” he said.  
“She tried to shoot me. In fact, if I’m recalling correctly, she did shoot me,” said Jack. He shot an angry glare in my direction.  
“In the arm,” I said. I couldn’t expect to rely on Deucalion all of the time. He wasn’t always going to be there, I had to stand up for myself. “But I was told to shoot you in the head.”

“And I’m supposed to be thankful?” he asked, scoffing. “Tasha said she’s part of the pack.”  
“She is, did Tasha tell you why?”  
Jack took a sharp inhale but shook his head. “No, she didn’t.”  
“Gerard Argent shot me,” I said.  
“Right, daddy issues, so what? You gave her the Bite… why?” he asked. There was a different emotion now. Disgust. He was disgusted with me and with his choices. Then he spoke louder: “She’s probably not as sweet as she seems, the Argents are just liars.”

I wanted to argue that point but currently that only applied to only half of my direct family. But Chris was honest, and seemingly so was Victoria. And Allison was just a child.

“If you’re using her then I get that but-”

Jack was cut off by a claw slashing across his face. I just stared at what happened in front of me.  
“I can do much worse than that, Jack. If I had held your family against you, you’d currently be decaying in the ground,” he snarled as he wiped the blood from his finger with a handkerchief. Jack gingerly touched the cut on his face, it hadn’t healed like it should have. Deuc tucked the handkerchief back into his pocket. “I cannot judge you apart from your family and not offer the same for her.”

“You’re just fu-”  
“I suggest you don’t finish that sentence,” Deuc said sharply. “See if you and Timothy can figure out who or what is behind the wendigo killings, I’ll deal with the newest pack member and I’ll do my own research.”  
“Okay,” Jack said quietly, bowing his head slightly.  
“Leave then.”

Jack did as told and wasted no time in leaving, not even looking at me as he walked past me to the front door. I just stared at Deuc with wide eyes.  
“What was that?” I whispered. I made no attempt to walk over to him and stayed by the doorway.  
“What?” he asked, closing his eyes for a moment. Did he really not realise what he had done?

“You cut his face.”  
“It’s a scratch,” he said dismissively.  
“It didn’t heal,” I protested.  
“Because it’s from an Alpha, it’ll take a little longer but it’s just a scratch.” He took a step towards me and I wasn’t sure what to do or how to feel.

“Liza, Jack has made a habit of not stopping until he feels pain. And then he tends to realise he’s going too far,” said Deucalion calmly. He walked towards me but stopped a step away. “Jack is from a family of criminals, narcotic dealings, theft and armed robbery. A lot of things like that and he learned to be violent to stay safe. Despite rejecting that lifestyle, he can be a very violent man, it’s best to not let him go too far.” That was what he meant by not judging Jack by his family.

“Was it really necessary?”  
“To stop him from being too violent and aggressive? Yes.”  
Shakily, I nodded. “And that makes it okay? I guess?”  
“No, but it works. Nothing else has and I’d rather he didn’t hurt you.”  
“Me?” I repeated, furrowing my brow. He had seemed more angry at Deucalion than me.

“He’s not going to attack me, not now he knows I killed Marco and Becca for the same thing,” he said and I nodded. That did make sense. “He would have gone for you. It was only a small scratch, Liza. It will be healed by the end of the day.” Jack would have tried to attack me simply because of my family.

“They don’t like me,” I said quietly. Tasha and Jake and now Jack. All because of family.  
“Jack will realise he’s being stupid before the end of the day, I know him well,” he said as he took a step towards me and held my hands. I didn’t doubt he knew Jack well, he was a part of his pack. “I just wasn’t letting him hurt you.”  
“Thank you,” I said but I could hear the lack of conviction in my voice. “I think I need a coffee, without milk.”


	45. Quarante-Cinq

I still wasn’t sure how to feel about Jack. I understood that it was necessary to stop him being violent and if that was the only way they had found, there wasn’t much else he could do. It didn’t mean I liked it.

But Deuc had been honest with Jack when he had said he would research possible creatures, even if he did it the next day. He sat in the chair in his study while I searched the bookshelves.  
“What am I even looking for?” I asked, staring at the endless books. There were so many, I doubted he had even read them all but it also wouldn’t have been surprising if he had.  
“I’m not sure,” Deuc said honestly.  
I sighed. “Wonderful.”

Spotting one of the books I had put on the shelf a few days before, I pulled it out.  
“Could it be a Kanima?” I asked.  
“I doubt it would be a Beta Kanima but it could be an Alpha one,” he said. He frowned. “But they’re bigger and a lot more conspicuous, someone would have reported a strange creature.”  
“And they have masters, right?” I asked. I didn’t know too much about them, only mentions of them from Gerard.  
“Yes, we’d have to kill the Kanima first if we have to kill the master, otherwise the Kanima just seeks a new master,” he said.

I slid the book back and turned to look at him. He sighed and shook his head. “It doesn’t seem right. They’re created by the Bite but… twisted, of sorts. Like were-jaguars.”  
“Were-jaguars?” I repeated. There were were-jaguars?”  
“Yes, another creature that results from the Bite going… wrong, I guess. Both of them are rare though, rarer than wendigos,” he explained and I just shook my head. I had heard of Kanimas before but I had never heard of were-jaguars before.  
“Insane,” I muttered.

“It’s not going to be another werewolf, if I were to face a wendigo in a frenzy, I’d need Betas and my eyesight,” he said, sort of rambling to himself. I had the feeling he was irritated with his lack of eyesight again.  
“What other creatures are there?” I asked.  
He hummed. “We can rule out Banshees, they don’t have any additional strength or healing. I doubt our local witch wants anything to do with this, unless they want the wendigo fangs but… they’re not a fighter.”

“Local witch?” I felt a little stupid not knowing all of this. He had a book on witchcraft but I hadn’t really thought much of it.  
“Yes, they keep to themselves, we don’t really have any conflicting interests,” he said as if it was normal. He paused and then added: “Did you know witches exist?”  
I shook my head. “I do now?”  
“They’re similar to druids but while druids use nature for a wide variety of things and tend to give advice, witches use nature to enhance their magic and heal people,” he explained and I just nodded. “We tend to not really need them and they can be dangerous. The witch that lives here, however, mostly likes to be left alone.”

Admittedly, I was a little disappointed as there was little chance of me meeting the witch if they liked to be left alone. But the fact that there was one living by us was amazing.  
“Are there wizards?” He nodded. “And alchemists and stuff like that?”  
“Yes, wizards tend to be a little more scholarly, there’s a fair few university professors that was wizards. And alchemists are basically magical chemists. There aren’t many of those, it’s a very skilled art from what I know. And because a lot of them accidentally destroy themselves.”

I stared at him for a moment and tried to figure out if he was being honest. I could hear his heartbeat, it was steady but that didn’t really mean much to me.  
“Seriously?” I asked.  
“Yes, there’s a whole supernatural world that’s hidden away, even from hunters and werewolves. In fact, the witch I know is fairly sure everyone just leaves the hunters to their werewolf hunting. Hunters that hunt everyone are rare.”   
“But why? There’s magic and everything and they just hide?”

“Would you willing expose your entire species to hunters for the sake of some werewolves?” he asked and I bit my lip. I wouldn’t expose everyone just for the sake of a few.  
“No, I guess I wouldn’t.”  
“The only other werewolf I know to know about their little community other than my pack is Talia Hale,” he said. I wasn’t surprised that Talia Hale knew about them.  
“And me,” I added with a smile as I walked over to him. “I feel a little special.”  
“You are,” he said.

“And that book on witchcraft was actually on witchcraft?” I asked.  
“Yes, written and bound by our own local witch, in case we need to deal with less friendly ones.”  
“That’s amazing,” I whispered. There was so much I didn’t know about the supernatural that some of the supernatural didn’t even know about. I did feel special that I knew about it and I smiled wider. I would never have known any of this if I had stayed a hunter.

“I’m not sure what else it could be.”  
“Maybe it’s another wendigo?” I suggested with a shrug. They had to fight among themselves at times and I didn’t really know any other supernatural creatures.  
“Perhaps,” he sighed. Deuc looked a little irritated that we hadn’t figured out what had killed the two wendigos. “Maybe I should pay a visit to our local witch. They might take a look at my eyes too. As good as Dr. Deaton is, he doesn’t have magic. Neither does Marin.”  
“Marin?”  
“His sister, she’s our druid emissary. She’s good with advice and psychology but not… not so much healing,” he said and I just nodded.

I had a lot of information to take in. Magic people existed, like witches, wizards and alchemists and probably others. And they were keeping away from the hunters and werewolves to keep themselves safe. And Dr. Deaton’s sister was a druid that helped Deuc’s pack.

I think I needed a five minute break.


	46. Quarante-Six

“Ms. Morrell, your brother said there was nothing he could do,” said Deucalion. He was talking to the druid over the phone and I waited patiently by the door. He was silent for a moment, I couldn’t make out what she was saying. “I’m not going to the witch to heal them, though if they can it’s a bonus, and yes I’m aware of some of the extreme conditions they set.”

He looked as though he was trying not to snap and raise his voice.  
“I’m bringing Liza with me. You can meet her later,” he said. And after a few moments added: “I’m bringing her because I’m blind, Marin. I can give her directions but their cottage can be a maze. You can visit later, if you insist. I’m sure your brother has told you about her anyway.”

He walked to the front door and I realised my coat wasn’t fastened and then proceeded to zip it up. Through the window, it looked like a rather windy morning.

Finally, Deuc said goodbye to Marin Morell and let out a sigh.  
“If she was any worse, she’d be far too much like my mother for me to tolerate her,” he said, shaking his head slightly as he walked over to me. “And she’ll be visiting later.” He opened the front door and we headed outside. It wasn’t too cold, it was mostly just windy. After locking the door for him, he held onto my elbow.

“So, where are we going?”

He gave me directions to the part of the forest that was farthest away from us but apparently we had to walk because the witch would know if we drove a car to get to them.

We stood in a clearing in the forest and I stared at the trees around us. There was nothing here, no cottage or house or anything.  
“Where is it? Are we in the right place?” I went to turn around but he stopped me.  
“Yes, wait a moment,” he said. “They know we’re here.”

There was suddenly a cuckoo clock noise and he chuckled as I flinched.  
“Now we can turn around,” he said. He let go of my elbow and turned and I did the same. In front of us was now a cottage with a garden of flowers and a path to the front door. It was leaning heavily towards the right and there was smoke rising from the chimney.  
“What the fu-”  
“Don’t swear,” he interrupted. “They don’t like it. And stick to the path, they like their flowers a lot.”

As I walked along the path, careful not to accidentally tread on any flowers or knock any, I stared at the house. It hadn’t been there five minutes ago. I could only guess magic was behind it.

Deucalion knocked on the door in a pattern, two knocks, pause, one knock, pause, two knocks. After a minute, the crooked door opened and a person with tanned skin and curly brown hair opened the door. They had flowers tucked in their short hair and what looked like blue paint on their cheek. Their green dress, which was almost the colour of the door, had embroidered flowers at the hem of the skirt and at the sleeves which ended just above their elbow.

“Wolf Boy.”  
“Don’t call me that.”  
“I can and I will. I called your father and your uncle that, I’m calling it you too,” they said. They glanced at me and then back to Deuc. “A guest?”  
“Newest pack member,” he said and who I could only assume was the witch nodded.  
“Pretty,” they said. “Come inside.”

They took a step back and opened the door wider. Deuc motioned for me to step inside first and I did so. He followed behind me and shut the door. The ceiling was low but inside showed no signs of the entire building being slanted. There was a cuckoo clock hanging in the hallway, with birds painted on it and the stairs were to the left. The witch stood in a doorway a few feet away on the right and they motioned for us to follow them.

In the kitchen, there were wooden, ceramic and metal bowls of… things everywhere. I wasn’t sure what. Something purple was bubbling in a pot on the oven and the room was crammed with potted plants, some of which I’d never seen before and some of which were purple.

“Is this about the wendigos?” they asked as they turned to a board with a knife and some green plant on it.  
“Yes,” said Deuc. “I was wondering if you knew why it’s happening.”  
They shook their head, hair tossing from side to side but the flowers didn’t fall out. “No idea. I’m staying far away from it.” I couldn’t blame the witch, especially if they were a magical healer.

Deuc looked a little irritated with the answer he got but didn’t voice any thoughts.  
“Who’s the guest?” they asked as they scooped the chopped plant into their hand and dropped it into a ceramic bowl.  
“My name’s Liza,” I said, introducing myself with a smile.  
They smiled back, there was something childish and mischievous about it. “Briar, lovely to meet you Liza. You’re rather pretty.” I could feel my cheeks heat up at the compliment, that was the second time they had said that.

“You flirt with everyone,” Deuc said, as if he had heard everything before.  
“That I do,” Briar said. They laughed and turned to reach for a powder in a jar. This was surreal, like something from a fairy tale. “I did like the last person you brought, Tamika, was it? I like her hairstyles.”  
Deuc sighed. “Are you sure you don’t know anything about the wendigos?”  
“Yes, I’m not a liar.”

It was silent for a moment and I watched with curiosity as they sprinkled the orange powder on the chopped plant and whatever else was in the bowl. They closed the jar and then grabbed a match from a pile of them in a small box and lit it with their thumbnail.

“I’m sorry you lost some of your pack,” they said. It seemed sincere and then they dropped the match into the bowl. The flame grew and was a bright pink for a moment and they hummed and nodded at it. “Even if two were… well, you know.”

I wasn’t sure how Briar knew that but yet again, I just figured it was magic or something or that sort.  
“I’m sorry about your eyes too, nasty that,” they said as they wrote something on the back of their hand. It suddenly hit me that I was watching every little thing they were doing and while it felt a little rude, I couldn’t bring myself to look away.  
“Can you do anything about it?” he asked.

Briar paused and stared at him for a moment before they set the pen down. They walked over and stood rather close to her, staring at their eyes. Deuc took a shaky breath and waited for their judgement.  
“When did it happen? Last month?” they asked, reminding me that it was now September. So much had happened in such a little amount of time.  
“Yes,” he said. “July 30th.”

Briar hummed but still stared at his eyes. Their face was centimeters away from Deuc’s and then, the witch flicked his forehead.  
“Please tell me that was useful.”  
Briar shook their head and somehow the flowers still didn’t fall out. “No, I just wanted to. It’s not every day I get to flick an Alpha werewolf’s forehead.”  
“So can you do anything?”  
“If I could, you wouldn’t like the cost anyway,” they said quietly.

“Does that mean you can’t do anything?” he asked, looking a little fed up with the witch.  
“Not anything simple,” they said. “It doesn’t help you’re a werewolf, your healing is different to humans. It’d require something completely different and it’s technically healed.”  
“But I can’t see,” Deucalion protested.  
“And there lies our problem,” said Briar. They turned and headed back to their bowl which they had just set on fire. “It would be complicated and I could do it with enough time...”  
“How much time?”  
“A month or so,” they said. “But you won’t like the cost, I know you won’t.”

There was a horrible feeling of dread and I decided I didn’t want to know what the cost was. But it seemed Deucalion did as he asked the witch.  
“You have to take the eyes from someone close to you,” they whispered but I knew both of us could hear it. Then, they scraped the weird pink goo that was now in the bowl into a jar. “And they have to be alive, they can’t die. You can’t steal them from a recently dead corpse of a friend.” Deuc looked down and his eyes were closed.  
“What kind of spell is that?” he asked.  
“I told you that you wouldn’t like it.”

Briar stared at Deuc for a moment and so did I. I watched him shake his head.  
“No,” he said.  
“I thought not,” said Briar. They searched through lids and then picked one out and screwed it onto the jar. Briar held the jar out and motioned for me to take it.  
“What is it?” I asked.  
“For a dreamless sleep, one teaspoon and you’ll be asleep twenty three minutes and six seconds later,” they said. It was oddly specific but I thanked them anyway, it felt rude to deny the gift. I stared down at the sheep painted on the lid and smiled, it was kind of cute.

“Now, if there’s nothing else I can help you with, I’d like to keep up my reputation of an antisocial hermit.”  
“No, thank you,” said Deuc. He turned and carefully left the kitchen.  
“If you get any wendigo fangs, could you send them to me?” they asked.  
“If we can get any, I’ll send someone over with them,” said Deuc. I could hear the front door open and hurried to follow him.

“Bye bye, Wolf Boy,” they called after us and I had to refrain from laughing. The entire situation was just ridiculous. They waved and I waved back before turning and walking with Deuc. Briar was a mess but it was oddly charming.

“That was almost useless.”  
“Almost?” I asked. Everything had seemed like a weird dream interaction.  
“We know Briar has nothing to do with it and it seems you have a present,” he said. The present was the dreamless sleep goo in a jar. It was an odd gift but a potentially useful one, I wasn’t sure what other gifts witches could give.  
“Yeah, they’re… weird.”  
“Weird is a very big understatement,” he muttered as he held onto my elbow.

I flinched at the cuckoo clock noise again and then laughed. What had just happened? Glancing behind me, the cottage and its garden was gone and the clearing was in its place. I would have thought it was a dream if not for the gift.


	47. Quarante-Sept

It had been afternoon when we had left the cottage even though we had set out at ten and it was an hour walk. Deuc simply explained it as magic, it was similar to why Briar looked twenty when they were apparently eighty years old as a minimum. We had half an hour to ourselves before the pack’s druid visited.

“Marin Morrell, this is Liza Blakesley. Liza, this is Marin Morrell, you’ve met her brother, Dr. Deaton.”  
“It’s nice to meet you,” she said, holding her hand out to me. I shook it and smiled.  
“It’s nice to meet you too,” I said while nodding.  
“Alan sends his thanks for the flowers,” she said. “I don’t know which of you sent them but I have an idea.”  
I laughed a little. “It was me,” I said. “I sent them as a thank you.”  
“He liked them,” she said before turning to Deuc.

Awkwardly, I watched as she examined his eyes. He looked bored with it.  
“It looks like he’s done as well as he can,” she finally said with a sigh. “I told you not to meet with him when you called.”  
“Just like Talia and Deaton,” he muttered.  
“Yes, they were right to advise you not to,” she said. Clearly, she was annoyed at being ignored. I still felt out of place, like I should have waited in the kitchen or upstairs, out of the way. Deuc had said to stay.  
“I’ll make sure to consider your advice more next time,” he muttered as he stood up. Morrell glared at him.

Deuc slowly headed towards the kitchen.  
“How are you feeling?” she asked and he stopped in the doorway. His head tilted to the side slightly, as he sometimes did, usually when he was bored or thinking.  
“What do you think I’m feeling?” he asked. There was that coldness again, like there had been when he had talked to Jack.  
“I can only guess, why don’t you tell me yourself?”

He sighed and then turned to face her.  
“You and your damn psychology,” he muttered. He had mentioned she was better with psychology rather than physical healing. “I’m angry, alright?”  
“Anything else?” she asked, stepping towards him. His fingers gripped the door frame tightly and I wondered if I should try to calm him down or de-escalate whatever this situation was.  
“I wish I’d have ripped his throat out after pulling his eyes from their sockets, are you happy, Ms. Morrell?”

I looked away from him and shuddered. I didn’t want the image of him doing that to Gerard in my head. He had been so close to doing it too, I could almost see it in my head.  
“There’s no point in being angry at him,” she said firmly. “It will hold you back.”  
“It doesn’t seem to be holding me back at the moment,” Deuc said, almost growling at her. It sounded like he wanted to attack her out of anger but he didn’t. “And why shouldn’t I be angry? He’s blinded me and taken three of my Betas and that led to Marco and Becca’s deaths too.”

“You have to accept it,” she said calmly but Morrell had no chance of calming him down. And that was the wrong thing to say.  
“Accept it?” His voice got louder with every word. “I am accepting it, I will be weaker and I cannot fight well if I cannot see who or what I am fighting. Half of my pack is questioning my decisions but one of them is far too anxious to disagree with me so I suppose he doesn’t really count.” He was referring to Charles and his voice was still getting louder.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to block out the memories flooding my mind. But the yelling just reminded me of Dad…

But the room was silent.

“If I need your help and advice, Ms. Morrell, I’ll be sure to call or visit.” Opening my eyes again, I watched Morrell grab her bag and head to the front door.  
“Don’t let your anger consume you, Deucalion.”

He said nothing and we both heard the door shut.

“Deuc…” I started but I didn’t know how to carry on. I didn’t know what to say to him.  
“I’m sorry, Liza. You shouldn’t have heard that,” he said. His grip on the door frame had relaxed. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you to say down here.”

Slowly, I stood and walked over to him.  
“You really are angry,” I said softly. He nodded. As I held his hand, the tension seemed to fade away and he took a deep breath.  
“I am, how can I not be? Ignoring Marco and Becca, and the blindness. We lost three people, good people, Liza. I trusted them with my life and they trusted me and now they’re dead. That makes me weaker.”

“You’re not weak,” I argued. Even though he was weaker, he had managed to easily grab Gerard and almost kill him. I could imagine what he would have done if he had his full strength. “You’re anything but weak.”  
“Oh, Liza, I know I’m not weak but I’m weaker. Whatever is killing the wendigos is strong, I would have to take the majority of my pack with me before to deal with even a wendigo. How am I going to deal with this?”

I didn’t have an answer for him and I desperately wished I did.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. I couldn’t think of anything else to tell him and I didn’t want to lie anyway. “But we’ll find a way.”  
“Will we?”  
“Yes,” I said, mustering up enough confidence and conviction as I could. “I can look through the books and maybe I can read them to you, maybe we can find something.”

“Liza…” he said and I stopped talking. “I… you’re wonderful.” I smiled at him.  
“So are you, is there anything I can do to help?” I asked him. I didn’t want him to be angry, he had said before that I helped with that.  
“I just want to hear your voice,” he said quietly.  
I nodded. “Okay. I can talk to you, or read to you. I managed to write a little before Ms. Morrell got here.”

“Can you read to me then?” I took a step back, towards the sofa and the glass coffee table where the red notebook was. He walked with me and I smiled.  
“Of course I can, mon chéri,” I said. He smiled at me.  
“Mon chéri is French,” he said.  
“Do you like it, mon chéri?” I asked with a grin.  
His smile widened. “I do like it, my love.”


	48. Quarante-Huit

I stared at the words on the page and then smiled as I wrote ‘The End’ beneath them. It was finished. It had taken a little over a month to write it out by hand, which wasn’t long at all. It had surprised me how little time it had taken. I hadn’t written ‘The End’ at the end of a book for years.

Ecstatic energy just seemed to rush over me as I grabbed the book and headed downstairs. As I reached the bottom of the stairs and headed to the living room, I froze.  
“Jack?”  
“Hi,” he said, smiling at me. He didn’t seem hostile like before. “You seem rather happy.”  
“I just finished writing my book,” I told him. He was acting rather differently and it was weird. It wasn’t what I had expected from him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Deuc standing in the doorway to the kitchen.  
“Liza,” he greeted with a smile. “Jack and I have been talking, he seems to think it was another wendigo, like you had suggested, since we’ve ruled out Briar having any involvement.”

Briar. The local witch wasn’t a fever dream. I had asked Deuc the next day and he had confirmed it had all been real, and he had pointed out that I wasn’t likely to have a fever because of the healing powers I now possessed.

“That’s good, right?” I said, looking at them both for confirmation. Jack nodded.  
“Yeah, it is,” he said. “I also wanted to apologise for the other day. Tasha and I had been… well, have been having some problems lately and it’s not an excuse but it’s been getting me a little more worked up than usual.”  
I nodded. “That’s okay,” I said quietly with a smile.  
“And Deuc’s right, I shouldn’t judge you on your family. It seems kind of like a cult so… yeah,” he said.

Knowing about Jack’s family, I nodded.  
“Sometimes it’s difficult to break free from what you’re raised as,” I said and he nodded in agreement. Difficult had been an understatement but I knew there were people who had it far worse than I did.  
“Yeah.”

“And it seems Deuc has a rather annoying habit of being right a lot of the time,” I said, turning to look at him. He chuckled and shook his head. But he had been right about how unhappy I was, and that Gerard would have been at the hospital. And even that Jack would realise he was wrong.  
“I’m surprised he hasn’t got a bigger ego,” said Jack, laughing a little.  
“Maybe he’s just good at hiding it,” I said. Jack nodded, he didn’t seem too bad now.  
“Of course he would be.”

“I’m beginning to not like this conversation,” Deuc said but he was smiling. I walked over to him, still holding the notebook in my hand.  
“I’m sorry, mon chéri,” I said before kissing him on the cheek. His smile widened.

“I should probably go,” said Jack as he headed to the door. “I promised Tasha I’d do the shopping.” He sounded rather sad about it and I frowned. He had mentioned him and Tasha had been arguing lately.  
“See you soon then,” I said. I wished I could have talked to him a little more but he had things to do and I had the ending of my book to read to Deucalion.  
“Goodbye, Jack,” said Deuc. Jack nodded and said goodbye before heading to the front door.

Hearing the front door shut, Deuc wrapped his arms around me.  
“I heard you finished writing your book,” he said. Of course he had heard me tell Jack that.  
“I have,” I said, enthusiastically nodding.  
“You’re smiling.”  
“I am,” I said. “I haven’t finished writing a book like this in… four or five years?”  
“Oh, this is special then,” he said with a smile on his face.  
“I guess so,” I said with a slight shrug.

“Special enough for a drink?” he asked as he took a step back into the kitchen.  
“I don’t drink,” I said.  
“Why not?”  
“Well, I just kind of get all sad and mopey when I drink,” I admitted. I usually ended up crying about how I felt like a murderer, despite not actually killing anyone myself.  
“So it’s not because you don’t like the taste?” he asked as he headed over to a cupboard.  
I shook my head. “No, it’s not that.”

He smiled as he grabbed a glass and a bottle of whiskey. “Then you’ll be delighted to find out that it won’t make a difference any more, you can’t get drunk.”  
“I can’t?” I asked as I walked over to him.  
“You heal too quickly to get drunk, essentially,” Deuc explained and I smiled. I guess I didn’t have to worry about crying or anything then.  
“What drinks do you have then?”

I put the glass of gin down on a coaster next to his whiskey and then snuggled in next to him. He had offered a gin and tonic but I told him tonic water was disgusting.  
“I wouldn’t have thought you liked gin,” he said as I opened the notebook and flicked through the pages to find where I had stopped reading to him last time.  
“Really?” I asked. Deuc nodded. “Well, can I read, mon chéri?”  
“Of course you can, my love.”

So I read to him.

When I stopped, it was silent and I anxiously waited for his opinion on the ending.  
“I liked that,” he said. “It’s a good ending.”  
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. I stared at the book, still finding it difficult to accept I had finished it. “Yeah? I’m glad you liked it.”  
“Does it matter if I like it?” he asked.  
“Of course it does,” I said without hesitating. I cared about his opinions. “And it is getting dedicated to you, I at least want you to like it.”

“But it’s your book,” he said.  
“I know,” I said, finally looking away from the notebook. His eyes looked like they usually did and I couldn’t look away. I wondered what his eyes looked like before, what colour they were. But I didn’t see the point in asking. “But I care about what you think about it. And it means a lot to me that you do like it.” He smiled and then kissed my forehead.

“Are you going to ask me the usual questions?” he asked.  
“Of course I am, favourite scene, favourite character, come on,” I said before leaning forward to drink more of the gin he had given me.  
“You know my favourite scene.”

I sighed. I did know. He had answered the same thing every time I had asked, with no exceptions. “Let me guess, the waterfall?”  
“Yes,” he said. “And I know you’re smiling despite that sigh.” I shook my head, he always knew when I was smiling from how I talked. I put the glass back on the coaster and turned to look at him again.

“Why is that always your favourite?”  
“It’s because I could see it, when you first read it to me. And as good as your other descriptions are, I can still see that waterfall so clearly,” Deuc said softly and it sounded sincere. I wasn’t sure how to respond at first.  
“I didn’t know that before,” I said. He just smiled.

“What about character then? Do you still like Jona?” I asked. He shook his head.  
“No, his betrayal wasn’t an accident like they thought,” he said. “He had meant to ruin their plans. But he is still an interesting character.”  
“Who’s your favourite then?” I asked.  
“Kit,” he said. “They’re interesting, I like their redemption.”  
I smiled, that meant I had written the redemption arc well enough for him. “I can see why you’d like them.” Kit was determined and polite, despite their habit of stealing anything they felt like stealing.

I looked at him for a moment before moving closer and kissing him, I could taste the whiskey on his lips.  
“What was that for?” he asked.  
“I just wanted to,” I said honestly. Then, he kissed me. I wasn’t expecting him to. “What was that for?”  
I laughed at his response: “I just wanted to.”


	49. Quarante-Neuf

Three wendigos were dead.

Most of the pack were gathered in the living room, I had chosen to stay near Charles by the doorway. Tasha and Jack were sitting on the sofa and Deuc in the armchair. Tamika sat on the arm of the sofa. Jake and Timothy were absent, I hadn’t met Timothy yet.

“Three of them.” Deuc held his face in his hands and shook his head. “Are there any connections?”  
“They’re family,” said Tamika. “I saw it in the newspapers this morning, The second was the first’s second cousin or something like that. And the third was his sister.”

So something was going after the family.

“Do we know if they have more family?” asked Tasha. Tamika shrugged.  
“They probably do,” said Jack. “More cousins, siblings or something.”  
“Do we know their names?” asked Deucalion.  
“Marvin, Noah and Tiffany Kennedy,” said Tamika. She had been the one to see this in the newspapers.

Deuc shook his head again. He looked lost and I wished this could all be over.  
“What if it’s just one guy trying to go after the family for something?” said Tasha with a shrug. “Just some ordinary human who really hates the family.”  
“But wendigos are strong,” said Charles. Tasha twisted to look at Charles and then frowned.  
“He has a point,” Jack said after a moment. He seemed hesitant to agree with Charles. “I doubt a human took down three wendigos, they’d have to catch all of them when they’re weakest or just by surprise.” Tasha huffed and crossed her arms, shuffling away from her boyfriend a little.

“We know it’s probably someone going after the family, does anyone know the family?” Deuc asked. It was silent. I hadn’t heard of the family before and apparently no one else had either. “We need to find out what they do then, see if there’s any reasons to murder them. And then we’ll have to deal with whoever it is.”

“Do you think we’re going to be able to deal with it?” asked Tasha.  
“We don’t have much choice in it,” said Tamika as she narrowed her eyes at the woman. “They’re disturbing things on our territory, we have to deal with it.”

“They own a store, I think,” Charles said quietly. It seemed no one else had paid attention to him. “Family run.”

That was important information.

“Deuc, Charles said they owned a family run butchers,” I said, maybe a little too loudly but I wanted to make sure the information was heard.  
“Interesting,” he muttered. “How likely is it that they all worked in the butchers?”  
“I don’t know, but I could find out?” Tamika offered.  
“Yes, please do,” said Deuc. Tamika nodded. “But why would someone kill butchers?”  
“Maybe they had something against the family,” said Jack with a shrug. “It’s not exactly uncommon, especially if they’ve had financial trouble lately.”

If I assumed correctly, Jack was referring to people borrowing money from… less friendly people.  
“Newspapers seem pretty certain it’s one person.”  
“They also thought that Omega was a mountain lion,” Tasha scoffed. “We don’t know who or what is killing these wendigos or if it’s even one person.”

“We’re not getting anywhere, call me if anyone finds out something important,” said Deuc as he stood up. “And where are Jake and Timothy?”  
“Jake refused to come if she’s here,” said Tasha. I could feel my stomach drop. She meant me. “He doesn’t like that you gave her the Bite and that she doesn’t have an anchor.”  
“Tim’s visiting his nan,” Charles said quietly but he had been heard this time. Deuc hummed, that was probably a more acceptable reason for not being present.  
“Tell Jake he’ll regret refusing to be here next time,” Deuc said with the cold edge I had heard more of lately.

Tasha stood up and Jack hastily did the same.  
“I’ll be sure to tell him,” she said before grabbing Jack’s hand and heading to the front door. Jack gave an awkward wave goodbye before disappearing into the dark hallway. They heard the door shut and Tamika sighed.

“Their arguing is starting to get painful, can I just lock them in the basement together until they sort it out?” asked Tamika before standing up.  
“No, Tamika. I’d rather my basement didn’t get destroyed,” said Deuc as a smile appeared on his lips.  
“Are they that bad?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the answer or not.  
“Well, last time they fought, it was because Jack didn’t have an anchor and it was a full moon but it was not pretty, she can really hold her own,” said Tamika. Charles nodded in agreement.

“She’s a good fighter,” said Deuc as he started to walk over to me. “But she seems fixated on who you were.”  
“I don’t understand why she cares so much,” I said honestly. It felt a little odd. I was a part of their pack now, even if in the ranking system I was probably the lowest as the newest member with no control over their shifting. “I don’t want to hurt any of you, I even set up the truce with Chris, he won’t hurt us if we don’t hurt him.”

Or Victoria and Allison. While they didn’t actively hunt anyone because Victoria was the matriarch and Allison was a child, hurting them would guarantee whoever had hurt them would be on the receiving end of Chris’ wrath.

“She said that you had tried to shoot Jack,” said Charles with a shrug.  
“I did shoot Jack, in the arm instead of the head,” I said honestly. “But Jack doesn’t seem to care, not now at least.”  
Deuc hummed and shook his head. “I’ve already told her to be civil and I suppose she is.”

It fell silent again.  
“I’m going to go home and sleep, I’ll see if I can find out if they all worked together tomorrow,” said Tamika.  
“You’re good at investigating,” said Charles quietly with a smile.  
“Thank you, there’s a reason my mother wanted me to be a detective,” she said, laughing a little. “I’ll see you guys soon, stay safe.”

That left me, Deuc and Charles. He was fidgeting and it seemed as though he was going to say something but didn’t.  
“Thank you for your help,” Deuc said. His voice was quieter than usual. “That was important information.”

“It’s fine, I just don’t like… I just don’t like the pressure of it when you ask like that.” Charles pulled at the cuffs of his sleeves and he was sweating a little too much.  
“I know,” he said. “Do you know anything else?”  
Charles shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I can see if we’ve even been their lawyer though?”  
Deuc nodded. “That would be helpful, thank you.”

“I’ll, erm, I’ll go now then,” he said as he slowly stepped backwards towards the door.  
“Be careful,” I said with a smile.  
“I will, thanks,” he said quickly before hurrying to the door.

Once the door shut, it left the two of us. I didn’t mind, I felt a little out of place with everyone here. I had no information or help to offer really.  
“I’m sorry about Tasha and Jake.”  
“It’s fine,” I said dismissively.  
“I know it’s not, I know you’re lying,” he said softly.  
“I know,” I sighed.

It felt horrible knowing someone refused to be in the same room as you. I had been a hunter, and I had helped my family track down werewolves. But I’d never killed one, even when I was meant to.

“I just don’t want to cause problems, there’s already enough going on.” I said as I headed to the sofa. My feet ached from standing up for so long.  
“They’re causing the problem, not you,” he said. There wouldn’t be any problems within the pack if I wasn’t here.

There was a folded scrap of paper on the table and I picked it up and looked at it.  
“O & M Instructor,” I read out. It was followed by a phone number.  
“That’s from Jack, I asked him to find someone for me when he was last here.”  
“I know what it is,” I said with a grin as he sat down next to me. “Kara had to do it too, remember? Orientation and Mobility. You’re learning how to use that white cane.”  
“It would be rude not to, it was a gift,” he said. And then added: “It might be useful anyway.”


	50. Cinquante

“So what happens now?” he asked and I furrowed my brow. I was waiting for the kettle to boil since he didn’t have a coffee machine.  
“What do you mean?”  
“With your book, what happens now?”  
“Well, I have to type all of it up and I’m editing as I do that,” I explained as I poured the hot water into the mug. I hadn’t slept very well because of the heat and coffee was desperately needed. “And then I’ll probably do some more edits until I’m as happy as I can be with it. Then I’ll find an agent and try to get it published, I guess.”

“How long will that take?” I glanced at him as I set the kettle down and shrugged.  
“I don’t know, months at least? I’m not bad at editing but I’m used to editing articles and other people’s writing.” He seemed genuinely curious about it and I smiled as I grabbed a spoon from the draw to stir my coffee with.

I put the spoon in the dishwasher before sipping the far too hot coffee. What was great about being a werewolf was that it would burn me but I’d heal so I could keep trying the coffee until it was the right temperature without having a burnt mouth for the rest of the day.

“I’ve missed listening to you read.”  
I chuckled. “It’s only been a few days since I finished writing.”  
“I know,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me. “It doesn’t mean I don’t miss hearing you read to me. You’re good at it, I can hear the emotions of the characters in your voice as you read their lines.”  
My cheeks heated up. “Thank you, I’m glad you like my reading.”

Now was probably a better time than any to ask him about reading some of the books in his study. I had been thinking about Briar’s book on witchcraft. And there was likely books on werewolves too, I wanted to know as much as possible about what I could do now.

“I was thinking, which is potentially scary, I know,” I said, laughing a little. Sometimes it was, especially if I was thinking about family.  
“About?” he urged.  
“Maybe I could read some of the books in your study to you,” I suggested. “I’ve kind of been curious and… well, if you wanted to hear me read then…”

He chuckled and his hand lifted to caress my cheek.  
“You could have just asked, my love.”  
“Well, I didn’t know what you’d say,” I said, stammering slightly.  
“You can read any book in there and I would like it if you wanted to read some of them to me as well,” he said. I kissed him before twisting and reaching for my coffee. It still burnt my tongue as I drank some of it.

“What about reading now?” I asked. “If you don’t mind me bringing my coffee with me.”  
“I’m not opposed to the idea.” He grinned and I smiled back.  
“Okay then.”

The book I picked was on Alpha werewolves. I sat on the desk facing him as he sat in the chair and listened to me read the long, run-on sentences. It was an old book, the spine was a little damaged and the pages were yellow but it had the old book smell that was nice.

I furrowed my brow as I turned the page.  
“It says something about twins here,” I muttered. “Hang on a second.” I read through it and then reread it just to make sure.  
“Apparently Alpha werewolf twins can merge and make a bigger werewolf.” He tilted his head slightly. “Did you know that?”  
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, I don’t remember it if I’ve read it before.”

I hummed and carried on reading. This was fascinating.  
“Apparently all identical werewolf twins can do it but it’s dangerous if they’re not an Alpha.”  
“Dangerous in what way?”  
“Can be painful and um, getting stuck in a half-merged state amongst several other things,” I said, frowning at the idea of being permanently stuck as a shifted, merged werewolf. “It’s difficult and really rare.”

“Twins are rare, identical even more so and to have them be werewolves as well? The chances are low, especially if they’re not born as werewolf twins,” he said. His brow furrowed and he leaned forward slightly “Is there anything else?” His hand reached out and took mine.  
“Yeah, there’s a kind of bad drawing but it says the merged form depends on the twins anyway. And that even if it’s not painful for Betas and Omegas, it doesn’t last long enough to be useful.”

“I now hope we meet werewolf twins,” he said. “I’d be curious how they’d both become Alphas too, the eldest would inherit if it hasn’t been chosen and if they killed for it…”  
“They’d both have to kill the Alpha at the same time or something, right?” I asked. That was the main way I had heard of becoming an Alpha, to kill them and take their power. He nodded.

“Which would be near impossible, unless…” I looked down at the book, at the slightly faded and crude sketch of merged Alpha werewolf twins.  
“Unless they merged for long enough to kill their Alpha,” I finished for him. He nodded. “That also seems near impossible.”  
“Only nearly, it’s just very, very improbable,” he said slowly. I had the feeling he was thinking of something.

A werewolf killing an Alpha meant they would take the Alpha’s power and become the Alpha themself. It reminded me of something…

“Liza?”

Deuc.

It reminded me of when Deuc said he had absorbed his Betas’ power.

“Are you alright?”  
“Yes,” I said quickly. “I was just… thinking. I was thinking.”  
“Do I get to know what you were thinking about, my love?” he asked and I nodded.  
“Yeah,” I said. “There’s nothing in this book about an Alpha stealing their Betas’ powers.”

I flicked through the few remaining pages left, two were blank and the last page just talked about how Betas and Omegas take longer to heal if their wound was inflicted by an Alpha. I had learnt that a week ago with Jack.

“There isn’t?” he asked.  
“No, nothing at all. But it does say how a Beta can steal an Alphas power by killing them,” I said. Which both of us knew without the book’s help. “Maybe you found its equal and opposite reaction sort of thing.”  
“Newton’s third law?” he asked with his eyebrows raised. “That’s for motion, not supernatural forces.” It was still a sort of force, in a weird way, and maybe it wasn’t how the law was meant to work but it seemed to apply to it.  
“But if the Beta can steal their Alpha’s power, then logically by that law, there’s an opposite. And that’s if the Alpha kills their Beta, they absorb their power, like what you said happened. Their powers just transferred to you.”

“We’re applying science to this now?” he asked. It felt as though he wasn’t taking me seriously.  
“It has to go somewhere, doesn’t it? It can’t just… disappear. It breaks the laws of physics then,” I argued. His expression remained relatively neutral. I sighed. “It’s not entirely insane. All of this has to follow some rules, right?”  
“I wouldn’t know science, Liza,” he said quietly. “I understand True Alphas and wendigos and things like that.”

“And witches?” I added. There was still a sort of heaviness in my chest as I looked down at the book.  
“Definitely not, they are entirely different, Briar is a little on the more eccentric side of things but magic is… something I don’t understand, I’ve only ever met Briar and their brother.”  
“Brother?”  
“They’re an alchemist, a rather stupid but lucky one apparently,” he said.

I laughed a little but there was sadness. He squeezed my hand and I looked away from the book and at him.  
“I’m sorry, Liza. I don’t mean to be dismissive of your ideas. I just… physics isn’t something I understand all too well.” I hadn’t been great at normal science, I was surprised I had even remembered it. “I’m sorry.”

Focusing, I could hear his heartbeat. It was steady. And he didn’t smell anxious, like Charles almost always did. I was fairly sure he was being honest.  
“I know,” I said quietly.  
“I promise I won’t do it again,” he said as he stood up. I had to look up to him instead of down now. Yet again, I was fairly sure he was being honest.  
“Okay.”


	51. Cinquante Et Un

It didn’t take too long to forgive Deuc. Even before we had headed to bed, I could tell he was truly sorry and I couldn’t bring myself to be mad or even disappointed with him.  


Looking over to my left, I watched him set down his knife and fork on the empty plate. I had always sat on his right, it was a habit now.

“It’s your birthday soon,” he said and I hummed before finishing off the last of the food on my plate.  
“A week tomorrow,” I said with a sigh. “I’ll be twenty eight, it’s so close to thirty, it’s a little scary.”  
“Why is it scary?” he asked and I shrugged.  
“Time just passes so quickly, we’re almost halfway through September but July feels like yesterday,” I replied. It was true, I had known him for over a month now and it simultaneously felt like I had met him a week ago and that I had known him for years.

I set my knife and fork down on the empty plate, just like he had.  
“You’re not planning on giving me your car, are you?” I asked.  
He shook his head. “Unless you want it.” Admittedly, I had gotten used to driving his car but I missed my old car. And I was determined to be stubborn on this matter.  
“No, it’s your car.”  
“Which I can’t drive,” he said. And he had never liked driving too much in the first place.

“When’s your birthday?”  
“I don’t celebrate it,” he said, shaking his head slightly.  
“Well, I’m going to feel bad if you get me something for my birthday and I don’t get you something because you won’t tell me when it is,” I said, laughing a little. It was true, I would feel bad and I desperately hoped his birthday hadn’t passed while I had known him.  
“November 13th, happy?” he asked.  
“Yes,” I said with a smile on my face. Now I knew his birthday and two months was ample time to try to think of a gift for him.

“But your birthday is first,” he said and I sighed.  
“It is, yes.”  
“What do you want to do for your birthday?” he asked and I was surprised. I wasn’t expecting anything special.  
“I don’t know, it’s never really been anything special,” I said quietly. He reached across the table and took my hand.  
“We can change that, if you’d like,” he said. I squeezed his hand as I nodded.  
“I’d like that.”

After taking the plates to the kitchen, we ended up sitting in the living room. It was quiet and I had the feeling that he was thinking about the wendigo murders. It was bothering most of the pack, myself included. All three of them had worked at the family butchers within the last year.

“What were you thinking of doing for my birthday?” I asked, curious if he was keeping it a surprise.  
“I don’t know, I have the feeling you aren’t the type for parties.”  
“Not really,” I said as I rested my head on his shoulder. It was comfy. “Not for myself.”

I didn’t hate parties, it was fun to go to other people’s birthday parties. Usually it was a hunter’s birthday party and I would be the designated driver for whoever I would end up dropping off at home. It had been nice to see the hunters so relaxed and normal instead of serious and focused on hunting down werewolves. Parties for myself wasn’t something I was fond of, especially not now I had lost so many people. If we held a party for my birthday, I had the feeling there wouldn’t be many guests.

“What about museums or zoos?”  
“I’ve been to most of the museums I’m interested in and…” I hesitated, not sure of whether to tell him why I didn’t like zoos. “I’m not really fond of zoos, I just feel bad for the animals in the cages,” I said. He just smiled at me. I understood that some zoos helped with animals going extinct or were at risk of becoming extinct but I still felt bad for them.  
“You’re a very caring person then,” he said softly. “It’s sweet.” I just blushed and hid my face with my hands out of habit.

“Do you know any nice restaurants we could go to?” I asked.  
“Maybe,” he said with a smirk. “Is that what you want to do?”  
“Yes,” I said after considering it for a moment. “Just us though, if you don’t mind.” Inviting the pack would just cause problems. Everyone would have to be invited, despite certain people’s dislike for me. Not inviting everyone risked offending someone which was another problem.  
“If that’s what you want then we can do that.”

I smiled and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. You can pick the restaurant if you want, I don’t really know fancy restaurants or anything.”  
“I’ll pick the restaurant then.”  
“Okay,” I said. I trusted him to pick a good restaurant, he seemed like the type to dine at fancy restaurants but I wasn’t sure if I thought that because of him in general or because he was wealthy.

It was weird, in a week and a day I would be twenty eight and not twenty seven. It also meant my birthday was on a Saturday so…

“It’s Friday the 13th today,” I gasped. He groaned.  
“Please tell me you aren’t superstitious about that,” he muttered and I laughed.  
“Why not?”  
“Tasha is terrible, she won’t do anything remotely dangerous on Friday the 13th, in case she gets hurt or someone else does,” he said. He sounded tired of the behaviour, if anything. “It’s irritating, even worse when the full moon happens on that day too.” It was hard to believe that Tasha, the same Tasha who had been barely civil with me, was scared of doing something risky on Friday the 13th. And she was worse if it was a full moon.

Which reminded me…

“When is the next full moon?” I asked. I didn’t have a lunar calendar and I didn’t have the effort to try to work it out.  
“It was on August 22nd, right?” he asked. I hummed as I thought and then confirmed that the full moon had been on August 22nd. “I’m afraid you won’t like it.”  
“Why?” I asked, furrowing my brow.  
“It falls on your birthday.”

I groaned.  
“Really?” I asked. “Why does it have to be on my birthday?” It felt like I was whining but it felt unfair.  
“It’ll be alright,” he said softly. “I’ll book the restaurant for the afternoon instead of the evening. It might be a little less busy too. And I’m not going to let anything bad happen.” I looked at him and smiled. I believed him.


	52. Cinquante-Deux

I stared at Tamika and then back to Deucalion. She was offering to take me shopping for my birthday and was going to buy me something with some money her and Charles had put together. But I had only told him.

“You told her, didn’t you?” I asked, crossing my arms in front of me.  
He smiled a little. “Why would I do that?”  
“I don’t know but you’re the only person I’ve told,” I said, trying not to smile. “It is a little bit suspicious.”  
“I suppose it is,” he said and I sighed.  
“Give me five minutes and then fine,” I said. Tamika meant well and it would be a little rude if I flat out refused.

We walked around the mall for a while, I’d been here many times before with Kara, maybe one or twice with Chris. But it felt different walking around with Tamika.  
“He said to get you something kind of fancy,” she said as we headed into a store.  
“Did he say anything else?” I asked out of curiosity,  
“That you two were going somewhere nice,” she said with a grin. Her elbow nudged my side. “It sounds a little bit like a date.”

I wasn’t sure what to say in response and Tamika just laughed as we wandered around the aisles in the store. The bright lights were a little painful and the one in the corner flickered.  
“It’s fine,” Tamika said. “But you can pick any dress you like, you just have to promise me you’ll wear it for your dinner or whatever it is.”  
“I barely know you,” I said, shaking my head a little. “I feel bad accepting this.”  
“Guess we’ll have to change that then,” said Tamika with a smile. “You could always come over one of the days, watch a movie or something.”  
“Uh, sure,” I said, nodding. We both decided that the dresses in this shop were not too nice and moved on to search elsewhere.

As we headed into another shop, we were tapped on the head from behind and someone pushed between us. Spotting the swishing dress and the flowers in brown curls, I realised who it was.

“Briar?”  
“Hello ladies,” they greeted with a small bow. “It’s nice running into you here, not literally though.”  
“What are you doing here?” asked Tamika with a furrowed brow.  
“Collecting things,” they said vaguely. They grinned. “What are you both doing here?”  
“Buying Elizabeth a dress for her birthday,” said Tamika before I even had a chance to answer.

“A birthday? Oh, how special,” they said, nodding as if to confirm what they said. “And Elizabeth? So Liza is Wolf Boy’s nickname for you?” Briar was the only one who would ever be allowed to call Deuc ‘Wolf Boy’ and every time they did it, it was funny.  
“I guess so?” I said, sounding rather unsure of myself.

“It’s cute, I’ve never seen him smile so much,” said Briar. They frowned for a moment but then their childish grin was back.  
“Yes, thank you!” said Tamika as she did a mini fist pump. “I am glad I am not the only one noticing that.”  
I stared at them both. “Seriously?”  
“Oh, yeah,” said Briar. They put on an overly serious expression and nodded.

Briar bounced from one foot to the other and I just laughed a little at their antics.  
“I should really get going, it’s nice to see both of you pretty ladies. Wait…” They trailed off and looked from me, to Tamika and then back to me. “Do I still get to call you pretty if you’re Wolf Boy’s girlfriend? I don’t want to… be rude or anything, especially at the moment.”

What did they mean by ‘at the moment’?

Briar stared at us for a moment and when neither of us said anything, they shrugged.  
“I can, I think. You’re not his. So I guess I’ll see you two pretty ladies soon or… whenever, really. This sort of thing isn’t too predictable,” they said. Before turning, they winked at Tamika. Briar practically skipped out of view and Tamika immediately pulled me out of the store.

“Where are we going?” I asked her, confused on why I was getting dragged out of a shop we had been in for only a few minutes before meeting Briar.  
“Just… somewhere,” they said quickly.  
“Do you… like them?” I asked. She immediately stopped and turned to look at me properly. I was taking that reaction as a yes. “You do?”  
“So what if I do?” they asked. “It’s not like it’s something that can work out, they live in a cottage that just appears and disappears in the woods. And I’m a werewolf, it’s not exactly common for someone magical to get with a werewolf.”

I remembered Deuc saying about how the magical community generally avoided werewolves and hunters to keep themselves safe.

“So? It’s not like they seem involved with the magical community for the two of you to be judged or anything,” I said, also remembering the antisocial hermit reputation they said they wanted to maintain. “And I don’t see any reason why the pack would care.” There were other things on their minds at the moment, most notably the wendigo murders.  
Tamika shrugged. “It’s just… can we talk about this another time?”  
Sensing her want to not talk about it, I nodded. “Yeah, sure. We still have to find a dress.”

Tamika smiled and nodded. “And something for your hair, you never change how it’s styled or anything.”  
I scoffed. “You’ve had your cornrows in for like, a month,” I protested. It felt weird tying my hair up so I hadn’t done it, it was a lot shorter than it used to be.  
“Yeah, cause you’re meant to,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, I’m getting bored of them and I’m taking them out later.”  
“Okay, okay,” I said, shaking my head. I wondered what she would be doing with her hair next, the cornrows were nice but I was curious. “What am I supposed to do with my hair though?”

Tamika shrugged and started walking, people were starting to get annoyed with us for standing in the middle of their paths. “Do you have hair curlers or something?”  
I shook my head. “No.”  
“Let’s start by getting some and like, a headband or something,” she said. “That’ll be easier to find than a dress you like anyway.”  
“I haven’t curled my hair since I was a teenager,” I said.  
Tamika smiled. “Now that, I can help you with. Or, more accurately, Charles can. He used to do his sister’s hair growing up. I’ll ask him later and if he agrees, you can come round on your birthday.”

“In the morning?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at her.  
She nodded. “I won’t be at work and I’m fairly sure Charles isn’t either, I’ll check.”  
“Well, um, thank you,” I said, smiling. “Even if you can’t manage it, thank you for the offers, and for buying me things, even if you haven’t bought them for me yet.”  
Tamika laughed and shook her head. “It’s fine, you’re like family now. A sort of dysfunctional family, at the moment, but still family. Besides, I haven’t actually bought you anything yet and we need to fix that.”

I laughed and followed her into a store. It reminded me of when I had gone shopping with Kara, no one caring about taste or judging sizes like Dad had done the one time I had been shopping with him in the last decade. I smiled, this was fun.


	53. Cinquante-Trois

I said goodbye to Tamika at the mall and headed back to the house by myself with a grin on my face. Before opening the door to the house, I could hear music playing. The Beatles.

I shut the door behind me and headed to the living room.

“Hey,” I said as I walked over to the sofa and sat down next to Deuc. Even if we hadn’t spent too long walking around, I really needed to sit down. “Hope you didn’t miss me too much.”  
He chuckled. “How was the shopping trip?”  
“Nice, actually. We ran into Briar, are you sure they aren’t a weird fever dream?” I asked as I rested my head against his shoulder.  
“Sometimes I wish they were just a fever dream,” he said and I laughed.

“But yeah, it was fun actually,” I said. It had been a lot more fun and a lot less awkward than I had expected it to be. “I’m apparently watching a movie with Tamika and Charles on Friday and the next morning, Charles is apparently doing my hair so I hope you didn’t plan anything for the morning of my birthday.”  
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “But I’m glad you had fun.”

I gasped as I remembered something. I smiled and rummaged through the bag I had.  
“I got you something,” I told him as I took his present out of its own little bag. He turned to face me and I unfolded the sunglasses and tried to put them on as  
carefully as possible.  
“Glasses?”  
“Sunglasses,” I corrected. “They help with things.”  
“Things?”

“Okay, I’m not making a good case here, am I?” I said and Deuc shook his head. “For one, it stops things from going in your eyes like leaves or tree branches, Kara walked right into a tree branch once, it wasn’t fun. It also means you don’t have to make eye contact with people, you can just look in their general direction. With the white cane, people kind of just get that your blind and most of them are a bit less… well, rude about it. But if you don’t want to wear them, it’s okay.”

He was quiet for a moment and thankfully, the Beatles were still playing so it wasn’t completely silent.  
“No, I’ll wear them.”  
“Really?” I asked. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, you-”  
“Liza,” he said as he held my hand. “I’ll wear them.”

I smiled and then the smile morphed into a grin.  
“You know, we haven’t really danced lately,” I said. “I kind of miss it.” We hadn’t really danced since we had left the penthouse, not properly and me dancing around the kitchen to the radio definitely didn’t count.  
He hummed. “No, we haven’t. Would you like to?”  
“I would like to.”

Deucalion stood, turned the music off and led me to the patio in the garden. I hadn’t been in the back garden yet and I had only stared at it through glass. It had looked beautiful from what I could tell and now that I was outside, I could confirm it was beautiful.

At the edge of the patio was what looked like an old barbecue and there was a round, metal table with one chair tucked under it. The other chairs were folded and propped against the wall, they were part of a matching set. The stone beneath my feet was smooth and a light grey colour and was laid out in a pattern of various sized squares and rectangles that I couldn’t figure out.

“What’s your dress like?” Deuc asked as we slowly waltzed around the patio. It was late afternoon and the sun would start to set in a few hours. But it was calm as we danced. The leaves rustled in the wind and birds chirped.  
“Well, I’m not going to tell you, it’s a surprise,” I said with a smirk.  
“A surprise?” he said with raised eyebrows. He still had the sunglasses on. “Liza, I can’t see it.”  
“So? You’ll have to wait until my birthday, even for a description. Tamika made me promise not to tell you and I don’t intend to break that promise.”

He chuckled and I twirled, the skirts flaring out and I smiled. It was such a simple thing to enjoy but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  
“I’m guessing I don’t get to find out about your hair until your birthday as well?”  
“Your guess is correct,” I said with a grin. I wasn’t exactly sure what was happening with my hair but I had hair curlers now and a few hair clips.

Somehow we had managed to abandon the proper posture for ballroom dancing and we moved from side to side with my hands on his shoulders. He pulled me closer and I rested my head on his chest.  
“Will you dance with me on your birthday?” Deuc asked. I nodded without even thinking about it. I didn’t need to think about it.  
“Yes,” I said with a smile. “I’d like that a lot.”

And I don’t know what inspired me to say it but I said it anyway.

“But not as much as I like you.”

He stopped and I felt the anxiety well up as I looked up at him. He knew I liked him, we had told each other that back in the penthouse. And I hadn’t slept alone in weeks.

I wished that I could tell him that I loved him but it just didn’t really feel right.

“And I do like you,” I said, disturbing the quiet. “I like you a lot, maybe not in the sparks and butterflies kind of way but I just… I enjoy being with you more than anyone I can think of, including my exes. Even if I’m just listening to music with you, I’m happy. I just… I like being around you. And I’m not sure if it’s because you helped me stop being a hunter or if it’s because you saved my life, but I really do like you. And I’m… I’m sorry.”  
“Don’t be,” he said softly. My heart jumped at how he spoke. “I know, Liza. I like you too and while some might call it a weak spot, I care about you.”

It fell to quiet again and the worry that I had said something wrong engulfed me. But Deuc still had his arms wrapped around me, he didn’t immediately push me away or anything like that.  
“You know, I was trying to wait a week but it seems like now is maybe a better time to ask,” he said and I furrowed my brow. “I know you asked last time but this time I’ll ask, what are we?”  
“I don’t know,” I said. I knew what I wanted it to be. Briar had called me his girlfriend and at the time I hadn’t really thought much of it, Briar was odd anyway, but now… “Well, maybe I do. I know you said that labels weren’t too important but Briar called me your girlfriend earlier and… and now I think about it, I want to be your girlfriend.”

“I’d be happy to call you my girlfriend, my love,” he said.  
“Does that mean I get to call you my boyfriend?” I asked and even as I said the words, I couldn’t stop smiling.  
“I’m fairly sure that’s how this works,” he said as he grinned. “So… yes, I think you can call me your boyfriend.”

“Can I look at your eyes, mon chéri?” I asked and then Deuc took the sunglasses off without saying a word. He didn’t need to.  
“You don’t seem to find them weird, they don’t make you nervous like some of the others.”  
“Well, they sort of reminded me of how… Well, they remind me of my family a little.” And that was all I had to say to explain that. I was glad. “But it’s just… I don’t know. They’re interesting. And I think you’re the only Alpha to have red eyes without shifting.” I laughed a little and he smiled.

I couldn’t bring myself to look away from his eyes as he leaned down slightly.  
“Can I kiss you?” he asked. I didn’t say my immediate thoughts out loud but nodded. We were so close to kissing and I didn’t even consider a ‘no’. There was something about him asking that made it more attractive.  
“Yeah,” I whispered. And not for the first time, his lips met mine but my hands found their way into his hair and I didn’t want it to end, like all of the other times. But it unfortunately had to. “Can you do that again?”

Deuc said nothing and just kissed me, leaving me breathless and a little bit too hot. And he definitely knew.


	54. Cinquante-Quatre

Tamika shut the door behind me and I left my shoes by the door. Friday had arrived sooner than I had expected and a movie was a welcome distraction from the fact I would be a year older tomorrow.

“So… what movie are we watching?” I asked as I pulled out some snacks I had brought. I wasn’t sure what Tamika and Charles liked so I bought food I knew I would eat if they didn’t.  
“No idea, Charles will be back soon though,” she said and then motioned to the couch. “Feel free to make yourself comfortable.” Her hair was no longer in the cornrows, she had taken them out like she had said she would.

Nodding, I headed over to the couch. I had fetched a blanket from my apartment the day before when I had headed over to check everything was alright. I curled up, the weather had suddenly gotten a lot colder.

The door opened behind me and I watched Charles walk in. He waved before shutting the door.  
“Hey,” I greeted waving back with a smile on my face. He seemed a lot less nervous than usual.

“How was work?” asked Tamika. She offered me a drink but I politely refused the offer.  
“Boring,” he said with a sigh as he started pulling his tie loose. “Same guy came in yelling at us again about wanting his job back because of something. I don’t really know, I was on lunch break at the time.”  
She furrowed her brow. “Again? Didn’t he try that last week?”  
“And the week before,” he sighed. Charles accepted the offer of a drink from Tamika with a nod as he headed towards a slightly open door. “Anyway, I’m going to take this suit off, what are we watching?”  
“No idea.”

“So, are we finally going to watch the Princess Bride?” asked Charles as he left his room in a shirt and some shorts. I laughed, I remembered loving the movie when I was a teenager.  
“But why?” asked Tamika with a groan.  
“Because you’ve never watched it,” he said and I gasped.  
“How have you never watched it? Please tell me we’re watching it,” I said. Charles nodded and disappeared into his room.

He returned with the DVD and Tamika reluctantly agreed to watch the movie. We started watching it once Tamika had ordered a pizza for Charles since he hadn’t eaten anything since his lunch.

“You know, it’s not fair,” said Tamika with a frown. She sat by me on the couch and hugged a cushion to her chest. “How is she so pretty?”  
I scoffed. “Are you kidding? They’re both beautiful.” For a moment, I thought one of them was going to pick up on what I had said.

“He’s handsome,” Charles said quietly. He had been left to sit on the bean bag in front of the couch and since I was curled up, my legs wouldn’t hit him. “She’s good looking but he’s far better looking.”  
“Charles, you’re biased, you’re gay,” Tamika said bluntly. She stuffed some popcorn into her mouth.  
Charles twisted and faced Tamika. “I can still tell when someone's pretty,” he argued before turning back to the movie and Tamika almost spat out her popcorn as she tried to refrain from laughing.

“Is it just me or is the Prince and the six fingered man in love with each other?” asked Charles. I hummed and nodded.  
“They do kind of seem like they’re in love but hiding it because he can’t have an heir with another man,” I agreed. Tamika just stared at both of us.  
“You guys are insane,” she said as she shook her head at us.

“Oh come on,” said Charles. “He called him by his first name and then said that he loved watching him work, how can you say he doesn’t like him?”  
“Well, he likes Buttercup!” protested Tamika.  
“Yeah, he likes her because he can murder her,” I said. “Besides, if I like both, I’m sure the prince can too.”  
“She has a point,” said Charles with an approving nod.

“You two are teaming up against me, aren’t you?” said Tamika as she crossed her arms.  
“No, we’re not,” I said and Charles agreed.  
“We just think they’re gay. Like me.”  
I laughed. “I think the prince is more like me, he doesn’t strike me as completely gay, I think he just prefers men.”

“I think that you just prefer Deucalion,” teased Charles and I could feel my cheeks heat up in the dark.  
“So what if I do?” I asked. I hadn’t expected Charles to be so open, he was usually so nervous. “He’s nice anyway.”  
“Right…” said Tamika. “If he could look at you, oh boy, if he could look at you, I would not want to be in the same room.”

I laughed and covered my face. I couldn’t believe I was hearing this. They had said something a little like this back at the penthouse so I shouldn’t have been too surprised.  
“He doesn’t have to look at her,” said Charles as he turned and knelt on the bean bag, facing us. “Remember when we helped him pack things? Tasha knew they’d been doing something, she told me when they’d gone on the picnic.”  
“Really?” gasped Tamika. “That’s what she was talking about?”

“She knew?” I said and then immediately regretted it.  
“So you two…?” Tamika trailed off but I just hid behind the blankets. This was not what I was expecting to happen.  
“Are you two going to do it tomorrow? For your birthday?” Charles asked and I was glad I wasn’t eating or drinking otherwise I would have just spat it out at what he asked.

“I thought you were supposed to be nervous,” I exclaimed while still hiding behind blankets  
“I am usually but I don’t really have anything to be nervous about here, the apartment is a safe place,” he said and I just nodded.

“I didn’t hear a no for tomorrow though,” said Tamika as she yanked my blanket from in front of my face.  
“Well, I don’t… why do you even want to know?” I asked, feeling rather awkward. My sex life involving Deucalion was not something I wanted to discuss.  
Tamika shrugged. “Just because, I guess. You’re not denying that you didn’t do anything before we got there to help pack either.”  
“Well...” I squeaked. I felt like a mouse who wanted to hide from cats.

“Is he good?” asked Charles and I stared at him.  
“Um… I’m not liking this conversation, can we go back to the Princess Bride? Besides, I need to go back to the house at some point,” I said. Tamika just made suggestive eyebrows movements and I sighed.  
“Sure, but after you answer Charles’ question,” she said.  
“I don’t want to,” I said, shaking my head as I snatched my blanket back.

“Fine, we’ll just talk about what Deucalion’s long and ha-”  
“Okay, okay,” I said quickly, not wanting Charles to finish what he was saying. It was nice seeing Charles so relaxed but not quite like this. I did not want to hear the end of what he was saying at all. “He’s good, now can we go back to the Princess Bride?” Tamika and Charles high-fived each other and I suddenly had the feeling they had been planning to bring this up all along.

“We can go back to the Princess Bride.”

I let out a sigh of relief and thankfully, the conversation stayed on the Princess Bride and food until I headed back to the house.


	55. Cinquante-Cinq

Sleep didn’t want to return to me. I didn’t know what time it was and I didn’t want to know, I wanted to go back to sleep. But it was too warm and the sun was shining in through the curtains.

“Are you awake?”

I groaned and I could hear Deuc chuckle.  
“Yeah, I’m awake,” I muttered as I opened my eyes. The room was a lot brighter than I had expected even with the curtains shut. Deucalion was already awake and stood by the door.  
“Do you want coffee?” he asked and I raised my eyebrows. He had never offered me coffee before.  
“I think I’ll take you up on that offer,” I said with a smile. “I’ll be down once I’m dressed.” He smiled before disappearing into the hallway. I could hear his footsteps on the stairs.

After a few minutes, I climbed out of bed and headed to the guest room, which I supposed was technically my room but it felt weird calling it that. I slipped on a dress, but not the one I would wear later that Tamika and Charles had bought for me, and then headed downstairs.

“There’s a letter on the table for you,” Deuc said as I took the cup of coffee from him.  
“Thanks,” I said, kissing his cheek before heading back to the living room. On the table, as he had said, was an envelope with my name and the address written on it. I set my coffee down. As I picked up the envelope, I started to open it and I pulled a birthday card out. I recognised the handwriting as soon as I opened it.

“It’s from Chris,” I said as I sat down. I had intended to say it loudly but it came out barely above a whisper. That meant he had found the address tucked underneath the windscreen wiper. Inside was a little message from him, wishing me a happy birthday and hoping I was well. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand and smiled. It wasn’t signed but I knew the handwriting.

“He found the address and not Gerard then,” said Deuc as he sat beside me. Smiling, I nodded and turned to look at him.  
“Yeah, I know his handwriting, it’s definitely Chris’,” I said. And it didn’t seem like there was any secret or hidden messages.  
“You sound happy,” he said.  
“I am,” I said before putting the card back in the envelope and back on the table. I sipped my coffee before leaning back and leaning against him.

“I have a present for you,” he said. “But I don’t know whether you want it now or later.”  
“Really?” I asked, furrowing my brow. “You didn’t have to, you already said you’d pay for the meal.”  
“I wanted to buy you a present too,” he said. “Besides, you’re my girlfriend, I’m supposed to get you a present on your birthday.”  
“You don’t have to,” I said, giggling a little. It felt a little odd hearing him call me his girlfriend. He had done it a few times over the last few days but I just felt a little happier every time he said it. “But thank you.”

“You don’t know what it is yet,” he said, chuckling. I shrugged.  
“The fact that you’ve bought me something is more than enough,” I said. But I wasn’t sure if I wanted it now or later. “When do you want me to open it?”  
He hummed, he wasn’t expecting me to turn his question back at him. “Later, if you can wait. But before we go out, if that’s alright with you.”  
“That is more than alright with me,” I said. I leaned forward and gulped down some of my coffee, it was starting to get cold.

Once I had finished my coffee, I headed upstairs to get the hair curlers and various hair clips and headed over to Charles and Tamika’s apartment.

I stepped inside the building and headed up the stairs like I had done the day before. I knocked on their door and almost immediately, it was thrown open and Tamika pulled me into a hug.

“Hey,” I said, laughing as I pried her arms from around me.  
“Happy birthday!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t get you a card so I figured a hug might make up for it.”  
“And I figured she wouldn’t remember to get you a card,” said Charles as Tamika stepped aside to let me walk in. He held out a purple envelope and I opened it to find a birthday card which was signed from both of them but in what I presumed was Charles’ handwriting.  
“Thank you,” I said with a smile.

Charles quickly ushered me onto the bean bag which hadn’t moved from where it had been left in front of the couch the night before. He took the hair curlers from me and grabbed his own hairspray which I didn’t have any of.  
“So, was it worth going back to his house yesterday?” asked Charles in a suggestive tone.  
I gasped. “If that happened, I wouldn’t be telling you, either of you,” I said. I still couldn’t believe how open they were. Even Kara hadn’t been like this.

“You’re no fun,” said Tamika as seriously as she could manage.  
“Or maybe I just don’t want to tell you about my sex life,” I said and she laughed.  
“It’s okay,” she said. “We’ll stop.”

Tamika and Charles thankfully did stop asking me about my sex life and Charles focused on curling my hair. He was a little more nervous today, constantly asking whether it was too hot next to my head and checking if I was okay.

After an hour, my hair was curled. It felt a little odd as I ran my fingers gently through my hair, I wasn’t used to using hairspray or even having it curled.

“It looks nice,” said Tamika as she pointed me in the direction of the bathroom mirror. I stared at myself, I had avoided looking at myself in the mirror over the last few weeks. My dark brown roots were starting to show but I smiled. Even if I didn’t look like I used to, I liked what I looked like now. The curls were bouncy as I turned to look at Charles and Tamika.  
“Thank you,” I said before looking back in the mirror.

Charles walked up behind me and turned me to face him. He pushed my fringe to the side and pinned it back with one of the hair clips we had brought, it was a black flower.  
“Thank you so much,” I said again, it felt nice.  
“It’s alright,” Charles said quietly. “It’s nice to have someone’s hair to do. I haven’t done anyone’s hair in a while.”

“Now you have to go back to Deuc’ house, have a nice meal somewhere fancy and then maybe have birthday se-”  
“Yep, thank you,” I said, cutting Tamika off. She burst into laughter and I just shook my head.  
“You have some of the best reactions,” she said between laughs and I could see Charles grinning and nodding out of the corner of my eye.

“Anyway,” I said as I grabbed my shoes and slipped them on. “I have to go, it’s nice seeing you two and thank you again for the help with the hair.”  
“I told you, it’s alright,” said Charles as he handed me my bag. “Happy birthday.”  
“Thanks.”

Shutting the door to their apartment behind me, I headed down the stairs and out into the street. It was a bit warmer now and the breeze blew my hair a little. Today was the best birthday morning I could have hoped for with everything that had happened.


	56. Cinquante-Six

I stepped inside and started to head up the stairs to change and get read for the meal that was in an hour.

“Liza?”  
I froze on the second step. “Yeah, hi.”  
“Jack left some cards for you,” he said. I slowly took a few steps back so I was no longer standing on the stairs and headed into the living room. There were two cards on the table. One was from Jack and Tasha, I was surprised that Tasha even signed a card that was addressed to me. The other was from Timothy who I hadn’t actually met yet but from what I had heard, he was caring for his sick grandmother.

“I wasn’t expecting a card from Timothy, I haven’t even met him yet,” I said as I turned to face Deuc. He was sitting on the sofa, holding a black box in his hands.  
“He’s kind, and he understands that you’re practically family now,” said Deuc. I wondered what was in the box as I sat next to him. “Can I give you your present now?”  
“Sure.”

He offered the box he was holding out to me and I cautiously took it from him. I opened it and stared at what was inside. A beautiful gold bracelet with red and white gems in it.  
“What the… this is…” I wasn’t sure what to say. It looked expensive and I felt a little bad accepting it since he was already paying for so much. “It’s beautiful and I appreciate it but it looks so expensive and…”  
“It wasn’t that expensive,” he said. But he had skewed opinions on what was and wasn’t expensive. It didn’t make a difference to him to rent a penthouse and pay for an extra person for almost two months.

“Deuc…” I said as I picked it up.  
“It wasn’t that expensive,” he insisted. I had no chance to be stubborn about this. “If you still feel it’s too much at the end of the meal, then you don’t have to keep it.”  
I hummed but then nodded. “Okay,” I said. It did feel like a lot but now I felt guilty about giving it back; I had always been taught that it was rude to refuse a gift. “I should probably go and change into the new dress.”  
“You might want to, yes,” he said before kissing my cheek.

Once I was dressed in the black dress with red flowers on the skirts, I took the bracelet from the box and, after a few attempts, I fastened it around my wrist. It was a little loose but not enough for it to slip off my arm.

After I checked my hair in the mirror, I smiled. I had red lipstick somewhere. It took a while to find it, I had bought it when I had gone shopping with Tamika in case I might want to wear it. I applied it and rolled my lips together.

I headed back downstairs again to find Deuc missing from the living room where he had been sitting.  
“I have the feeling you look rather beautiful.”  
I blushed and turned to face him. He wore a button up shit, like before. The top button wasn’t fastened. “Thank you,” I said as I walked over to him. “You look rather nice too.” With one hand, he put on the sunglasses I had brought him and I smiled and took his hand.  
“So… where am I driving?”

Deuc told me the name of the restaurant and I was fairly sure I had applied for a job as a waitress there when I first moved to my apartment. It was a nice restaurant with an aquarium in the centre, filled with colourful saltwater fish swimming around.

“I like it here,” I told him as we sat down at a table near the fish tank. “Have you been here before?”  
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “Quite a few years ago now though, so I hope the food is still good.”

We ordered food and carried on talking. I made sure to ask the waiter for Deuc’s food to be put out using the clock method so he could eat it easier. There were only a few people in the restaurant but another couple arrived a few minutes after us.

“When was the last time you came here then?” I asked out of curiosity while waiting for the food to be brought out.  
“About… eight years ago.”  
I laughed a little. “That’s a bit more than ‘a few years’,” I said and he shrugged.  
“I came with my mother, she always used to go to newly opened restaurants to see if she liked them. She used to go with my father but he… he had passed away a few years before that. This was her favourite restaurant for a while.”

“Oh,” I said, frowning. From what I knew, Deucalion didn’t have any family left, not any family he was close to. “I’m sorry.”  
“It’s fine,” he said, shaking his head. “It really is. It was a while ago now. Besides, you shouldn’t be feeling sad on your birthday.” I was a little curious about his family but decided it could wait until another day.

“What do you want to talk about then?” I asked. He hummed and I took a sip of the water that was on the table.  
“What does your dress look like?” Smiling, I described it to him. The soft black cotton with red flowers that looked like roses. I told him about how it flared out when I twirled and he laughed, telling me that I seemed to like those kinds of dresses. I admitted that I enjoyed wearing the dresses, I was a little thankful that running away had meant I had to wear something completely different to my usual attire.

Soon after, the food was brought out and I smiled, realising they had done as I had asked with Deuc’s food. I knew from experience with Kara that some waiters and waitresses could be rude and sometimes they just didn’t care to change how they set out the food.

“You picked well,” I said as I put the knife and fork down on an empty plate. “Very well.”  
“Good,” he said. He had finished eating before me, like always. “I’m glad you like it here.”

When the waiter returned to take our plates away, I asked to speak to the manager and Deuc looked confused. When the waiter asked if we were sure, I nodded and asked to speak to them.  
“I thought you said you liked it,” said Deuc.  
“I did,” I said, smirking. He had no idea I was doing it to compliment the staff.

The manager was an old man with greying hair. His walking stick hit off the ground as he walked over.  
“You asked to talk to me,” said the manager. “Is something wrong?”  
“No, no,” I said with a smile. “Everything’s great actually, I want to thank you for it.”  
“Oh?” His eyebrows raised and I saw him stare at Deuc for a moment too long.  
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s my birthday today and this restaurant has been amazing. The waiter was really nice and the food was delicious.”

The manager smiled and nodded, saying that he’d pass on the compliments and that we’d be welcome to come back and if we did we’d have a discount.

“Excuse me for asking, but do I know you? I think you used to visit but it’s been a few years ago now,” said the manager as he turned to Deucalion.  
“I did, I used to come here with my mother,” he said, smiling as he looked at the manager. The sunglasses really helped, he could just look in his general direction.  
“Deucalion, isn’t it?” said the manager as he nodded.  
“Yes,” said Deuc, nodding.

“I haven’t seen you or your mother in years, how is she doing?” he asked and I could see Deuc’s smile drop.  
“She uh, she passed away a few years ago, that’s… why I stopped coming here,” he said quietly but we could still hear him.  
“I’m sorry to hear that,” said the manager. “She was a lovely lady.”  
“Yeah,” said Deuc. His smile was a little more forced. “But I’m glad the restaurant is still great. We’ll have to come back.”  
“Oh, please do,” he said with a grin. “Any time you’d like.”  
“Thank you,” said Deuc. “We will.”

After paying, we headed outside. I held his hand as we walked, the sky was starting to get dark a little earlier because of the clouds covering the sky. It was a full moon tonight.


	57. Cinquante-Sept

We got back to his house and it was still light outside. The sun would be setting soon and that scared me a little. The last full moon had been… strange. I could remember the animalistic instinct to attack him and that had been the last thing I had wanted to do. I could also remember his roar that turned me human and the fear that came with it. I had hated it and now it was going to happen again, on my birthday.

I tried to ignore my thoughts as I grabbed a CD, I had fetched it from my apartment when I had gotten the blanket and checked on it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to move out or not but either way, I needed to pay next month's rent.

My finger hovered over the play button.  
“Hey, Deuc,” I said, twisting to face him. He was pouring us drinks in the kitchen. “Do you remember?” He just paused and raised his eyebrows. “The 21st night of September?” I pressed play and the song started playing. Setting the bottle of whiskey down, Deuc shook his head.  
“I can’t believe you exist sometimes,” he said before starting to pour himself whiskey again. I danced as I walked over to him, sort of glad he couldn’t see my dancing.

“You’re glad I exist,” I said as I stood next to him and took the glass of gin. Now that I couldn’t get drunk, I could enjoy the taste of the drinks without worrying about becoming a mess.  
“I am,” he said. He was smiling. “Are we still going to dance?”  
“Of course,” I said. “I just always play this song, it came out when I was like, four and I used to love it. Me and my mom used to dance to it.”  
His arm snaked around my waist. “You really are sweet.”

When the song finished, I took the CD out and put it back in its case. I had only wanted to listen to the one song; sometimes I did listen to the entire album but I didn’t feel like it today.

We danced on the patio again, laughing as light faded. Deuc could probably sense my growing anxiety as we ended up like last time, swaying side to side and abandoning the proper ballroom posture.

His fingers brushed over the hair clip holding my fringe out of my face and then his hand ran through my hair, feeling the curls that had somehow managed to stay almost exactly like they were when I had left Charles’ and Tamika’s apartment that morning. It was soothing but it wasn’t enough.

“You don’t have to be worried,” he said softly. “I kept to the promise last time, I’ll keep to it this time.”  
“I know,” I said quietly. “But I hurt you last time.”  
“And I told you it was barely a scratch,” he said as he untangled his hand from my hair. It was a little upsetting. “Liza, my love, you don’t have to be scared.”  
“But I am,” I said honestly. It was taking everything in me not to shake or cry. I was fairly sure that I wasn’t simply because he was holding me. “It does scare me, I don’t want to shift.”  
“I know,” he said. “But it’ll only be for a few months, until you find an anchor. And this is a rather small price to pay. I’d rather this happen every month than having you not here at all.”

Deucalion really was glad I was here, that I was alive, I could hear it in his voice every time the topic came up. Part of me didn’t want to believe it, that he cared so much about someone who used to hate him and his entire species. I suppose he likely hated hunters too, maybe he cared because we both set those beliefs aside, with the exception of Gerard. I couldn’t blame him for his anger and hatred towards him.

But, as always, Deucalion was right, it was a little price to pay. I could heal and had enhanced strength and senses. I would just shift every full moon until I found an anchor and partially shift if I had some heightened emotions. Thankfully, I hadn’t been extremely angry or stressed lately.

“I know,” I said, I didn’t know what else to say. “I’m glad to be here, otherwise I would have joined the 27 club.”  
“27 club?” he asked.  
“Some musicians happened to die at 27, a weird coincidence, I guess. Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain,” I said. If I remembered right, it had been a weird thing that had appeared after Kurt Cobain’s suicide.  
“I’m glad you’re a writer and not a musician then,” he said as he pulled me a little bit closer to him.  
“So am I.”

I didn’t want to imagine what the world would have been like if I had actually died. What would Deucalion have done? Would he have attacked Chris in the waiting room or would Talia and Dr. Deaton manage to stop him? Would Gerard have actually cared? Kara’s memories of me would be forever tainted, I would have been the best friend that ran away at her father’s funeral.

“Look at me,” he said softly and I looked up to meet his gaze. His eyes were red and I smiled despite the dread. “I know it scared you last time, but the roar is the only way we can deal with this. I refuse to lock you in a basement, especially on your birthday.”  
I nodded slowly. “Okay,” I said.

The moonlight shone down on us, a cloud had been covering its rays before and it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t told Deuc about the new writing idea I had. It had come to me when I had woken up in the night and I had written it down in the back of the red notebook so I didn’t forget it. I would have to tell him later, or tomorrow. It was an exciting idea, I was going to start planning it while editing the one with the waterfall scene he seemed to like so much.

He was beautiful and I didn’t worry about my apartment or how I was going to get more money in the next month for rent. It was relaxing, even when we weren’t doing anything special, I was just happy to be around him.

Anger was rising.

Despite trying to focus on… something, anything, the anger was rising. Deucalion grabbed my wrists and I tried to pull them free. The razor-sharp claws on my hands couldn’t be used if he was holding my wrists, how was I going to attack people if I couldn’t get my hands free?

Before I could resort to kicking or biting, the slabs shook beneath my feet as he roared. My legs almost stopped holding me up and I was glad he had been holding onto my wrists. It was like I had been yanked from a freezing cold pool of supernatural induced rage. The fear seeped in, washing away the anger and aggression and his hands let go of my wrists so he would wrap them around my waist again. I knew I was shaking as I put my hands on his shoulders.

“Deuc…”

And then I was interrupted by his lips on mine. Whatever I was going to say disappeared and the fear started to melt away. I was safe. Everyone else was safe too and nothing had been destroyed. I hadn’t tried to rip him limb from limb, he didn’t let it get that far.

It had taken longer to shift this time. Thinking about Deuc with the full moon just made me angry when any other time it would make me happy. He wasn’t my anchor despite how I felt for him. But feelings for him wasn’t what made me human. I wasn’t sure what made me feel human but it wasn’t those feelings. Dogs could be attached to their owners, animals like swans typically mated for life. Those kinds of emotions didn’t really feel all too unique to humanity.

Even if Deucalion wasn’t my anchor, I still liked him. Even despite the tiny screaming voice telling me he was my enemy, that he was a monster, that I was a hunter and shouldn’t be this close to a werewolf unless I was trying to hurt him, I had to admit it.

I was in love with him.

But how did I tell him?


	58. Cinquante-Huit

As I shifted in bed, my wrist pulled and was stuck on something. Opening my eyes, I could see the bracelet caught on a loose thread on the duvet. I carefully pulled the thread from where it was stuck between two of the stones.

“You still have the bracelet on,” he said softly. I looked from the bracelet to Deuc and smiled.  
“I have,” I said. “I sort of forgot I was wearing it, I must have been really tired when I put these pajamas on.” Normally, I would have taken it off in case something like this happened or in case I accidentally damaged it in my sleep; it looked expensive even if he said it wasn’t and I didn’t want to break it.

“Do you still want to keep it?” Deuc asked and I remembered the deal we had made, if I didn't want it at the end of the meal, I could give it back. “I know you didn’t say yesterday after the meal but…”  
“I’ll keep it,” I said. I would feel even worse if I gave it back now. “It’s a wonderful present, thank you.”

“If you don’t want to, you don’t-”  
“Deuc, it’s alright. I mean, I feel a little unworthy of it because it just seems so expensive but... I appreciate it. And it feels sort of rude to give it back and I’d feel bad,” I told him. His hand reached out and found my arm. His hand slid down my arm and felt the bracelet that was still there. He twisted it around my wrist with his thumb.  
“You like it, don’t you, my love?” he asked with a grin.  
“I do, mon chéri, it’s very pretty.” I kissed his cheek and snuggled a little closer.

For a while, we both just lay there. His hand moved from my wrist and the bracelet to hold my hand. I enjoyed the little moments like this, where neither of us had to talk. We didn’t need to.

“Do you ever want to get married?” Deucalion asked and for a moment, I had no idea what to say to him. I wasn’t expecting to be asked a rather important question about my future not long after I had woken up.  
“Why? Are you thinking of proposing already?” I joked as I closed my eyes, I was still tired. Desperately trying not to yawn, I bit my lip.  
“No,” he said, laughing a little. I gave in to the yawn and a tiny bit of the fatigue disappeared. “I’m just curious.”

“Maybe one day. It’s a lot of money and… I don’t know, maybe I’d need more friends first,” I said, laughing to cover the sadness of realising I couldn’t really invite anyone to my wedding. I couldn’t exactly invite Kara or Chris and his family. I was supposed to be dead. And I wouldn’t have my father to walk me down the aisle, not that I would want him to. “But maybe one day.”

Kara had never liked the idea of marriage, she had never liked the idea of committing herself to one person in such an expensive and formal way. She considered it a waste of money, time and effort and thought that people didn’t need extravagance to show they were devoted to each other. Initially, my views had been the same as hers until I had talked about marriage with my last girlfriend. And simply because we couldn’t, I had decided that one day I would. Even if it was a small wedding with the minimum number of guests required for it to be official, one day I wanted to be married. I still wanted to be married, it just wouldn’t be to my former girlfriend.

It was quiet again except this time there were birds chirping outside. Maybe they were singing to a mate or calling to their young.

“Would you ever have children?” I asked after a while. If Deuc got to ask a rather important question about the future, I figured I could too. I turned my head to look at him and opened my eyes. His lips pressed together and he was quiet. If he wasn’t lying down, his head would probably tilt slightly to the right.  
“Not now. Or any time soon, really. I have too much to do, too much to deal with to even consider having a child. If I had a child now, it would feel a little unfair. I wouldn’t be able to give them my best.”

Humming, I could understand his point. He had to adapt to life without seeing, he had only had a few sessions on how to use the white cane and he had the stress of dealing with the wendigo murders. He could hardly raise a child while trying to deal with that.  
“Please tell me that you’re not going to announce you’re pregnant.”  
“I am not pregnant,” I told him seriously. It wasn’t something I felt like I could joke about, having a child felt like a rather serious decision to me. We had been careful and getting pregnant was the last thing I needed.

“Why do you ask?”  
“Curious,” I said, giving him the same response he had given me, and he chuckled. “I figured you asked a pretty important, sometimes a deal-breaker, question so I thought I’d do the same.” I had once met a guy who was increasingly insistent about wanting children, we never made it past the third date.  
“So do you want children?” he asked and I bit my lip.

Years ago, I had decided that if I wanted to have children, I’d have to have a stable income and it had to be with someone I loved, someone who I knew wouldn’t hurt them. A factor I didn’t take into account was the child now most likely being a werewolf.

“If the circumstances are right,” I said honestly. And then I realised I needed to elaborate on said circumstances. “You know, money, living well, actually being ready and prepared to deal with a tiny creature that you’re going to look after and be responsible for.”  
Deuc chuckled. “It sounds so strange when you put it like that.”  
“I mean, when you think about it, it’s kind of weird,” I said. Cravings, back pains, feeling a baby kick. “I mean, it’s amazing that you’re creating a life that will feel things and have friends and fall in love but… that’s also sort of weird and a little bit scary.”

His thumb started rubbing circles on the back on my hand and I smiled.  
“Do you ever want to get married?” I asked. He hadn’t mentioned if he would ever get married, he had only asked me.  
“Maybe,” he said, shrugging as well as he could while lying in bed on his side. “Like raising a child, wedding planning isn’t something I want to deal with any time soon.”

I laughed and snuggled even closer to him, muttering that I was cold as I did so. He was a lot warmer than I was and being cold was a good excuse to cuddle, not that I needed an excuse.  
“So is it safe to say that plans for those two are fairly similar at the moment?” I asked with a grin.  
“It seems so.”

“That’s good,” I said while smiling.  
“It is,” he agreed and I smiled wider as I closed my eyes. “And you’re not actually that cold.”  
“Really?” I asked while raising my eyebrows. “I feel cold.”  
“Well, in that case…” he said as he wrapped his free arm around me. Giggling, I lifted my head off of the pillow to kiss him. I loved the moments like this.


	59. Cinquante-Neuf

Hearing the door knock, I paused the music playing and headed to the front door to see who it was.

Charles. He stood on the doorstep with his clothes dripping water and his hair soaked.

“I think I know who’s killing the wendigos,” he said, he sounded a little out of breath.  
“Did you run here?” I asked and he nodded. My eyes widened and I took a step back to let him inside. “Deuc’s in the kitchen.”  
“Thanks,” he said as he walked inside and headed straight to the kitchen. After watching the rain fall and bounce off the floor for a few seconds, I shut the door.

I headed upstairs to grab Charles a towel so he could dry himself off a little in the kitchen.  
“It’s someone called Mark Hampton, he used to work there a few years ago,” Charles said, speaking so quickly I could barely understand him. He nodded in thanks as he took the towel from me and wiped his face. “But the owners sold the store to Marvin Kennedy who wanted to run a family butchers. He tried to sue them but the case didn’t hold up at all.”

“So he’s killing them in revenge?” I asked with furrowed brows.  
“I think so,” said Charles as he frantically nodded. “I didn’t deal with them last year and I tried to find the last owner but they seemed to have just disappeared.” Charles breathed heavily and stopped for a moment to catch his breath.  
“It’s alright,” Deucalion said calmly. “Thank you, Charles. This is very useful.” Charles just nodded and tried to dry his hair with the towel.

“I would have called but I broke my phone,” he said with a frown.  
“Oh no,” I said sympathetically. “How?”  
“Dropped it in water earlier and now it won’t turn on,” he sighed. I wondered if the phone had dried out properly yet, it might still have a chance of surviving.

“So… what happens now?” I asked, turning to look at Deuc. Now that they knew who it was, what were they going to do?  
“We have to find out more about him,” said Deuc as he picked up his cup of tea. “Where he lives, what he is, if he can fight. And then we take care of him.”  
“Take care of him?” I repeated and Deuc nodded.  
“Whether that’s threatening them and making sure they never come near us again or whether it’s something a little more… violent, well, that depends on how they want to deal with it.”

I nodded, something more violent likely meant death. Death was a way of making sure they wouldn’t ever cause any trouble. But hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.  
“He’s the one who keeps coming to visit us,” Charles said quietly and I furrowed my brow. Remembering Charles mentioned someone yelling about wanting their job back while he was on his lunch break, my eyes widened.  
“The one you said about the other day?” I asked and he nodded. Deuc simply drank his tea.  
“Security people at the office block have stopped him from coming in now but he’ll probably try again.”  
“That might end up being useful,” mused Deuc as he set his cup back down on the kitchen counter. “Maybe we can get someone to follow him from the offices or something like that.”

I offered Charles a drink and he accepted a cup of coffee. It was the last sachet but I didn’t mind, I was planning on shopping tomorrow and I could always get more. I was still drinking more tea than coffee anyway.

“Would you like a lift back to your apartment?” I offered as I glanced through the window. The sky was darker despite the fact that it was the middle of the day.  
He shook his head. “I have about fifteen minutes left of my lunch break,” he stuttered. I still couldn’t believe Charles was an attorney-at-law when he could barely talk to people he knew. Maybe he was better at talking to strangers because he didn’t know them and they didn’t know him. “I’d appreciate it if you dropped me off there though.”  
“Yeah, of course.” I said.

Charles quickly finished the rest of his drink and I grabbed the car keys and slipped on some shoes. After pressing the button on the keys to unlock the doors, Charles and I dashed to the car and rushed to get in and shut the doors to avoid getting soaked, though Charles was still fairly wet.

By following the directions Charles gave me we managed to reach the towering office block where Charles worked.  
“Hey, you said you were on your lunch break, right?” I asked as he pressed the button to release his seatbelt.  
“Uh, yeah,” he said, nodding quickly. He seemed eager to get out of the car.  
“Have you eaten anything?” I asked. He had run to the house and even with the extra speed being a werewolf provided, it had probably taken all of his lunch break. Hesitantly, he shook his head. “Just try to eat something before you go home, alright?” He smiled and nodded.

“See you later,” he said before getting out of the car, slamming the door shut, and sprinting towards the doors of the office block. When he was out of sight, I started to drive back home, enjoying the sound of the rain hitting off the roof of the car. This was progress and one step towards having a lot less to deal with.


	60. Soixante

“And… that’s all I have written so far,” I said. I closed the notebook and leaned forward to set it on the table before sitting back on the sofa. While I was a little anxious to hear his thoughts on the new idea, I knew Deuc wouldn’t think it was horrendous and if he did, he would be polite about it.

He wrapped his arm around me and I rested my head on his shoulder.  
“What do you think then?” I asked. It had been the idea I had thought of a few days ago that I had remembered on the night of my birthday. I still never managed to tell him that night, I had told him the following morning instead.

He hummed. “It’s not really like your last story.”  
“No,” I said, laughing a little. “It really isn't.” That was an adventure story, this was a horror story.  
“It is interesting though. What are the shadows?” he asked.  
I grinned. “That would be spoiling the next part,” I said. I hadn’t completely figured it out and I hadn’t written the next part yet but I was sure it was going to be fun to write.

“But... do you think they’re good or bad?” I asked, wondering what he thought of the dark shapes that followed the character.  
“No one’s truly good or bad,” he said and I just stared at him. He had a point but this was fiction.  
“Okay, okay,” I said. “You have a point.” As he always tended to. “But which do you think they’re closer to? Or, like, are they on the main character’s side or not?”  
He hummed again and I bit my lip, eagerly waiting for his response. “I think they’re on neither side but they’re more good than bad.” He wasn’t far from what I had planned and it was irritating.

“Did you give the main character a name?” he asked and I frowned. I wasn’t actually sure if I had named him. Furrowing my brow, I grabbed the notebook and flicked through the writing, my eyes scanning the pages for any mention of a name.  
“No... I did not.” I said as I sheepishly set the book back down on the table. He laughed and shook his head. “You can name him if you want.”  
“Are you sure?”  
I nodded. “Yeah.”

He was silent for a moment, his head tilted to the side. And then finally he spoke.  
“Orrin.”  
“Oh wow,” I muttered. “That’s a really nice name. Orrin it is then, thank you.” I kissed his cheek and grabbed the notebook to write it in the back of it. It felt natural to write all of the notes and the first version of the story in the notebooks. I seemed to write more by hand, even if writing by hand took longer. I seemed to be more enthusiastic about it.

“What about your other story?” he asked.  
“I’m still editing it,” I said. Editing was going… sort of well. It wasn’t horrendous, it was just very different editing a novel when I was used to editing articles. “When I’ve edited it as much as I can then I can send it to an agent and they’ll send it to publishers and then, hopefully, it’ll get published.”

“And are you still going to dedicate it to me?” he asked, a smirk on his lips.  
“Of course I am,” I said, smiling. I hadn’t even thought about it but I had agreed to dedicate the first book to him.  
“Good,” he said before kissing my neck. I squirmed but his arm was wrapped around me  
“That’s… I’m ticklish,” I exclaimed, trying to get away from him kissing my neck.  
“You’re not usually,” he said, laughing.  
“Apparently I am now,” I said, shaking my head slightly.

I hadn’t been tickled since my last girlfriend had found it amusing how sometimes I laughed and tried to get away while sometimes it didn’t bother me at all. I frowned a little at the memory of it. But it reminded me of my apartment and that in turn reminded me of something important.

“Um, Deuc, I was thinking about my apartment,” I stared. I only had the money for another month’s rent and I didn’t want to ask him for money since I’d feel bad about it. “I was thinking that I might hand in the 30 day notice to say I’m moving out but I figured I should ask you if you don’t mind me moving in here.”  
“Of course I don’t,” he said. “If you want to live here, I’d actually be quite happy with that.”  
I smiled. “So when I go to pay my rent for the month, it’s alright if I hand in the notice then move in here?”  
“It is more than alright.”

I kissed his cheek. “Thank you.” It felt wrong to not tell him why I had suddenly decided to. Well, it wasn’t exactly sudden, I had been thinking about it a little but after yesterday, I had finally decided. “See, when I went to my apartment yesterday, it turned out I had a little less money than I thought I did and it’s not enough for my rent after I pay for next month.”  
“I could give you the money.”  
“No,” I said quickly. I shook my head. “No, you already pay for so much I just… I can’t take that too. I’d like to put money towards the food and things though.”

Deuc nodded. “That’s alright then.”  
“Really?” I asked. Usually arrangements like this came with something else and it really did feel like I wasn’t contributing enough.  
“Yes,” he said, turning to look at me. I smiled and kissed his lips.  
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I mean it, mon chéri, thank you.”  
“It’s alright, my love,” he replied and my smile widened.

Closing my eyes, I rested my head on his shoulder. I could finally just relax after trying to edit and write for most of the day.

“Do you have the 30-day notice written out?” he asked.  
I opened my eyes. “Um… no?”  
“Do you need to go and write it or can it wait until tomorrow?” he asked. I grinned, he wasn’t going to be any help if I was stuck procrastinating but he was wonderful.  
“It can wait until tomorrow.”


	61. Soixante Et Un

The pack was gathered in the living room again.

This time Jack and Charles had claimed the sofa with Deuc in the armchair like last time. Tamika sat on the arm of the chair by Charles. This time, Jake had arrived at the house, albeit ten minutes later than he was supposed to arrive, and stood in the doorway to the hallway, ready to leave as soon as possible. Tasha had isolated herself from everyone else and stood in the doorway to the kitchen, she wouldn’t even sit by Jack.

I sat on the arm of the armchair, Deuc had asked me to before everyone else had arrived.  
“I’m assuming Timothy is with his nan?”  
“He’s asleep,” said Tasha bluntly. “He was up all last night and most of this morning with his nan.” Part of me was a little disappointed I hadn’t met Timothy, everything I had heard about him was positive. Everyone seemed to think he was kind.

Deuc gave her a thin smile before thanking her and looking at Jake. The sunglasses really did help, it seemed like he was making eye contact even if he couldn’t.  
“It’s nice of you to show up this time, Jake, despite the tardiness,” he said. Jake’s fists clenched by his side but he didn’t say anything. “I’m sure you won’t be late next time.”

“Why are we here?” asked Tasha with a frown.  
“Charles discovered who our murderer is,” said Deuc. Tasha’s eyebrows sceptically raised as she looked over at the nervous man. “Mark Hampton, he used to work at the butchers until a family of Wendigos took it over.”  
“Is he a Wendigo?” asked Jake as he leant against the door frame with his arms crossed.  
“He’s probably not human,” said Deuc. “But whether he’s werewolf, wendigo or otherwise, we don’t know.”

“He took out three Wendigos,” said Jack with a laugh. “I’d be impressed if he was human.” Tamika nodded in agreement.  
“Why is there a pack meeting for this?” asked Tasha. “I’m sure we have better things to be doing.”  
“I want someone to go follow Mark Hampton, from the offices where Charles works. Obviously, Charles can’t so someone else has to,” said Deuc. It sounded as if he was getting bored of this, as if talking to his pack was a chore.

“Can’t Tamika or Liza do it?” asked Jake as he looked over in my direction. “It would have saved the rest of us some time.”  
“Maybe sending me would be a bad idea because I don’t feel like being assaulted or having the cops called on me,” said Tamika with a forced smile on her face.  
“And sending a werewolf without an anchor doesn’t sound like a great idea either,” added Jack. I was glad for some support but it was depressing that Tamika couldn’t help out simply because she was more likely to have the cops called on her.

“Why don’t you do it then, Jack?” asked Tasha with a sickly smirk. Jack raised his eyebrows. “Are you kidding?” he asked. “Half of the town doesn’t like me or my family, you think I’m going to stalk someone? Besides, I’m not subtle, I’m a walk in there with guns blazing type of guy, you know that.” I watched the two of them and it hit me that they had likely been arguing a lot in the past few weeks. I wasn’t sure if they were even a couple any more.

“Which leaves Tasha and Timothy,” said Tamika, smiling at them. Those two were the ones who disliked me the most, for reasons I couldn’t fathom other than being an Argent. It felt weird to be calling myself an Argent, I didn’t feel like one. Argents didn’t live past their first full moon as a werewolf and I had experienced two.

“Well, I’m not exactly a quiet person,” said Tasha, almost sounding disgusted at the idea that she could be quiet.  
“Yes, you have been rather unnecessarily vocal lately,” said Deuc. Even if he couldn’t see Tasha to glare at her, I could feel the angry aura he gave off. Despite frowning, Tasha stayed silent. “Jake?”  
“I have work, I work a 9 to 5 job like Charles does, I can’t afford to call in a sick day,” said Jake.

Deuc sighed. “So how are we going to do this?”  
“Well,” said Jack as he looked at Tasha and then to me. “There’s still one person who can definitely be quiet.”  
“Me?” I asked. “I thought we’d established that letting a werewolf with no anchor stalk someone was a bad idea.”  
“She is trained to be a hunter,” said Jake, his face hinting that he was considering saying something nice about me. “She can be quiet and follow them.”

It was silent for a moment and I turned to Deuc.  
“You’re not seriously considering this, are you?” I asked him. He said nothing.  
“You’re not exactly prone to anger, Liza. Unless it’s Gerard and I doubt he’ll be here,” he said quietly. It sounded like he didn’t want to ask it of me.

“I haven’t fought anyone except for you on a full moon and that did not go well,” I said, desperately. I could feel my heart beating in my chest. He had promised he wouldn’t let me hurt anyone. “If he realises and… and attacks, I don’t want to shift. I wasn’t even a good hunter, a good hunter wouldn’t have let Jack live and they certainly wouldn’t have walked into your penthouse asking to be blinded.”

Deuc still said nothing.

The pack stayed silent.

And then, finally, Deuc turned to me.  
“I think you’ll be able to do it, my love.” He said it so softly and I couldn’t look at him. This was risky, that was why they hadn’t considered me in the first place. As I stared at my feet, I thought of the promises we had made each other. Deuc no longer had to worry about suicide, abut my suicide. Two full moons had passed, if I was going to do it, I would have by now. But there was still the risk that I could hurt someone or destroy something.  
“And no one is going to get hurt, right?” I asked. Deuc nodded.

“If he doesn’t notice you, he doesn’t have a reason to attack you,” Charles pointed out. Charles had a point, he was a lot more clever than his nervous disposition suggested.

“Fine, I’ll do it then.”


	62. Soixante-Deux

Taking a deep breath, I left the car. Charles had said that Mark Hampton was tall, incredibly pale and had dark hair. Apparently, he had worn the same battered orange hoodie to the office. And a man fitting that description had just been turned away by two burly men in security uniforms.

I was careful when I followed, not getting too close and if I did, I stopped and checked the time or tried to adjust the shoes I was pretending to occasionally be struggling to walk in.

There was still the fear that he would notice, that he would somehow corner me and I’d have to fight my way out. Jack had given me a small pistol, Chris would have known the exact model but it was what I had to use if he did try to attack me. It was what I had to use to avoid shifting, if I could avoid it. But there wasn’t much of a choice, I had to avoid it, I couldn’t risk shifting and I didn’t want to. Shifting meant I wasn’t in control and that meant I was likely to hurt someone.

For a moment, I had thought I had lost him in the small queue outside of shops but I spotted him turning left at the end of the street. I quickened my pace to keep up with him. I had been following him for almost ten minutes.

Deuc seemed so certain I wouldn’t hurt anyone or destroy anything. I didn’t know where his confidence in me came from. Even if I wasn’t aggressive, I didn’t have an anchor.

I could feel my legs shaking as I walked and stopped for a moment and pretended to adjust my shoe, it was always the left shoe. If someone was watching, it was consistent and hopefully not too suspicious.

I followed him for another ten minutes before I started to recognise my surroundings. We weren’t too far from my apartment, though it wouldn’t be my apartment for much longer. I had handed in the 30 day notice yesterday, along with the money for the rent for the month. My landlord hadn’t been too surprised and seemed rather happy to find out that I was moving in with a boyfriend.

I froze as I recognised the street we had turned on to. My apartment block was on this street. Now a little weary of where he was going, I slowed my pace a bit. It took everything to stay calm as he turned to go into my apartment block. For a moment, I thought he was visiting someone but he pulled out keys and unlocked the door.

“Hey!” I called out after him. I exaggerated my fake limp from my imaginary pain as he turned to look at me. “Could you hold the door for me?” Mark held the door open for me as I walked towards him. I thanked him and headed to my apartment, rummaging for my keys in my pocket. I pulled them out, unlocked the door and headed inside.

As I shut the door, I could see him lingering on the stairs. He knew I had been following him, I was sure of it. I pulled my shoes off as I sat on the couch and stood to grab my boots. I sat on the couch to pull them on. I was glad I had left some things here, I wasn’t completely ready to let go of this place. I put my other shoes in my bag. Looking at the photo of Chris and of my sister-in-law and niece who I could no longer see, I decided to bring it with me. That photograph would likely stay in the guest bedroom but I didn’t feel like leaving it behind this time.

I was shaking slightly as I left my apartment and locked it behind me. There was no one watching me as far as I could tell, no one waiting on the stairs or outside. I shut the outside door behind me slowly and stared at the names on the list for the buzzers. ‘M. Hampton’ was apartment number 14. Grabbing a pen, I wrote the number 14 on the back of my hand so I didn’t forget and walked back the way I had gotten to my apartment.

It didn’t take as long to get back to the offices since I wasn’t trying to keep my distance from a possible murderer. It was strange, I was weary of the man who was believed to kill three wendigos and yet I was friends with murderers, I was in love with one. Even if Deucalion had killed two in self-defence, he had likely killed others in the past and he had openly admitted to wanting to kill Gerard. Chris had killed people too and I still trusted him, I still considered him family.

As soon as I had shut the car door, I fastened the seatbelt and started the engine. I could feel my heart beating in my chest as I headed back home.

As soon as I shut the front door, I headed to the sofa and sat down. Feeling Jack’s gun in my pocket, I pulled it out and set it down as quickly as I could. I hadn’t held a gun in months and I didn’t plan on doing so again.

“Is everything alright?”

Deuc.

I sighed and shrugged, even if he couldn’t see.  
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. I could hear him walking towards the sofa. “He didn’t attack me but he knew I was following him.”  
“It’s good that he didn’t attack you,” said Deuc. I nodded, it was good.  
“But he watched me walk into my apartment, he lives in the same building, number…” I checked my hand. “14. Number 14, upstairs.”

“At least we know where he lives now,” he said as he sat beside me. His arm wrapped around me and I realised I was still shaking. Or maybe I had stopped and had started shaking again.  
“Yes, but he knows where I live too,” I said. Which also meant he knew who I was. “So he knows my name.” He knew I was an Argent and if he knew anything, he knew I was a hunter.

I couldn’t escape my past as a hunter, as much as I tried.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.”  
“Deuc, this man has killed three people and knows that I’ve been following him,” I said. I rested my head on his shoulder but the terror wouldn’t leave. “And if he is supernatural, if he’s a werewolf or a wendigo, he’ll know I’m a hunter.” Deuc pulled me closer to him.  
“He shouldn’t have anything to worry about if he hasn’t killed anyone.”  
“But we’re fairly sure he has,” I said, closing my eyes in hopes that I could ignore it. Deuc’s hoodie was soft, but not as soft as his sweaters. “What if he breaks in? Or tries to attack me before I can get him.”

“Liza, I’ve promised that you won’t hurt anyone. I can promise that I won’t let him hurt you.” I opened my eyes and looked up at him. He didn’t have his sunglasses on. “I couldn’t let anyone hurt you, my love. No one will hurt you.”

I believed him.


	63. Soixante-Trois

“Okay, so, I’ve finished the first round of edits,” I said to myself as I made my reward: coffee. I had been craving it all day and used it as motivation to finish editing. “Spelling is all checked and everything, now I just have to wait a week or two and then edit it again and then we’ll see if it needs editing once more and then maybe I can send it off to an agent. That’s scary though.”

“Scary?”

Flinching, I turned and faced Deuc who was leaning against the door frame with a smirk on his face.  
“Deuc!” I exclaimed, frowning. “You scared me.”  
“I’m sorry,” he said as he walked over to me. “You were talking to yourself about your book, weren’t you?”  
Hesitantly, I nodded. “Yeah,” I said quietly.

“Is that what you’ve been doing all day?” he asked.  
“Yeah,” I said. I hadn’t left the guest bedroom too much, I was too busy trying to finish editing so I could make myself coffee. “What have you been doing?”  
“Listening to that tape you left down here yesterday,” he said, smiling as he put his hand on my arm. I had left him one of the many audiobooks that Kara had given me over the years. I had picked out one that I thought he might have liked yesterday and we had listened to the beginning of it together. “It’s good so far.”  
“I thought you might like it,” I said with a grin.

I stirred my coffee with a spoon and then sipped it. Feeling the sadness I had been trying to avoid all day creep in, I sighed.  
“What’s wrong?”  
“it's just ...” I sighed, I didn't want to lie to him and there was no point in lying. There was no point in hiding why I was sad. “I just realised that Alison would be back at school now and then I realised I won’t be able to see her again. Not any time soon, at least. She’s going to think I’m dead. Deuc… she’s like, eight years old.”

Deuc frowned and pulled me into a hug. I needed it.  
“She was on the gymnastics team, you know? Her old school used to do gymnastics competitions and me and Chris and Victoria used to go and watch them. She was great, doing cartwheels and handstands and stuff. But... ”  
“I know,” he whispered. “It’s going to be hard for both of you. But Allison has her parents and you can talk to me.”

I nodded and wiped my watering eyes. It might be easier for Allison, as far as she was aware, I wasn’t going to be coming back. But I had the knowledge that they’d carry on without me. I guess I was dead in a way. The human version of me that was a hunter was dead.

“I know,” I said. “I just… I guess it just hit me that I really can’t go and see Allison or Chris. It’s like… I knew I couldn’t but it just finally sunk in.”  
“Things like this take time,” he said as his hand moved up to my cheek. “And if your niece is anything like you, I’m sure she’ll be fine.” He kissed my cheek and I smiled.

“What are you going to do about the wendigos?” I asked. It wasn’t something I really wanted to know the answer to but I felt as though I had to ask anyway.  
“I’ll get the pack together at the weekend and we’ll figure out what to do,” he said. “Most likely it will be negotiations and failing that, killing them.”  
“Killing them?”  
“A murderous Wendigo can't be allowed to run free.” Deuc was right, neither of us could let a murderer walk around freely. But we were currently doing that anyway.

“Can’t you… I don’t know, convince them to hand themselves into the police or something?” I asked. That seemed to be a better alternative to killing someone, even if they were a murderer.  
“That would come under negotiations,” he said. He sighed. “The first was treated as some sort of animal attack until the rest of the family was then attacked, at least, that’s what Tamika said. If Mark Hampton confesses, either he’s going to have to come up with an elaborate reason for the wendigo bite marks or else he’ll be able to walk free.”

“And if he goes missing after something like that…” I sighed. “It’s suspicious.” That would be an even more difficult situation to deal with. If he went missing or was murdered, the police would be certain to investigate.  
Deuc nodded. “Exactly, my love.”

I drank more of my coffee before wrapping my arms around Deuc’s neck.  
“I don’t know how you do this,” I told him.  
“Neither do I,” he said, chuckling. “But I have some news on something that you might like.”  
“Oh?” I smiled, wondering what it was.  
“First session on using that white cane is on Monday, I thought you might be interested in knowing that.”

“Monday?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.  
“Yes, I got a call saying that the tutor can teach me earlier than he thought he could,” Deuc said.  
“That’s brilliant.”  
“It is except I have no way of getting there,” he said.  
I frowned, realising what he meant by that. “You can just ask, you know.”

He hummed. “I didn’t know if you’d say yes.”  
“Of course I’d say yes,” I said. I pecked his lips and he smiled. “I know it’ll help, why do you think I’d say no?”  
“I’m not sure,” he said. “But you’ll drive me?”  
“Yes, I will,” I said as I nodded. I reached for the cup and sipped at the coffee again. “I’ll drive you every week, okay? Unless I physically can’t drive, I’ll drive you there every single week.” I wasn’t sure what would render me unable to drive, especially with the healing I got with being a werewolf. Unless there was a werewolf equivalent of the flu, I’m fairly sure only a bizarre accident or death would get in the way of that.

“I’m starting to think your an angel and not a werewolf,” he whispered before kissing me again. My cheeks heated up.  
“And I’m starting to think you’re after something else.”  
“What makes you think that?” he asked innocently though the smile on his face suggested otherwise. I just sipped my coffee again. “Maybe I just think you’re wonderful. And besides, you’ve been working on your book all day.”  
“I have and I know you think I’m wonderful otherwise I wouldn’t be sharing a bed with you every night,” I said. Smiling, I looked down at the half filled mug. “Just let me finish my drink first and then sure.”


	64. Soixante-Quatre

The car slowed and stopped at the red light and I turned to look at Deuc for a moment.  
“What do you think about using the cane then?”  
“It’s useful,” Deuc said. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as I stared at the light and hoped it would change quicker.  
“Are you saying that because you think so or because you have a cane that’s basically a weapon back at home?” I asked.

The lights changed and I put my foot down on the accelerator. Deuc stayed quiet.  
“You know, Kara was all nice about it until she got in the car and started complaining. But, she could see then and she should be able to soon, I think.” Kara had said she was getting an operation to fix it, I could only hope it went well.

“I think it’s maybe both,” he said after a while.  
I laughed. “I can’t blame you. But I am glad you found it useful.” Kara’s dad had made her a pretty decent weapon, the point at the end was sharp. “Do I have to drive you there and back next week?”  
“If you don’t mind.”  
“I don’t,” I said with a smile. “I don’t mind at all.”  
“Thank you, my love.” My smiled widened and I tried to focus on the road in front of me.

The car pulled onto the driveway and I turned the engine off.  
“I don’t know if you noticed,” Deuc started as he got out of the car. I got out and shut the door behind me. “But I think that was the first time I’ve heard you call this place home.” He shut the car door and I locked the car. I looked at the old house and realised that I had considered it home for a while.  
“Yeah,” I said as I walked around the car. “I guess it feels like home now."

I held his hand and kissed his cheek and Deuc smiled.  
“It can be your home for as long as you want,” he said.  
“Thank you,” I said. “But I’ll only call it home as long as you’re here with me.” Deuc chuckled as he wrapped his arms around me.  
“I’m not going anywhere any time soon, but I think we should go inside.” I laughed and nodded, it was starting to get a little windy and cold.

The weekend seemed to arrive so quickly and I almost forgot that Deuc had asked the pack to yet again gather in his living room. Deuc was in his armchair, as always and I sat on the arm of it. Jack and Tasha were back to sitting together, or, more accurately, Tasha was sitting on Jack’s lap. Charles was sitting next to them and Tamika on the armchair next to Charles. If I didn’t know Charles was gay, I would have thought he and Tamika were a couple with how close they were. Jake was standing in the doorway to the kitchen with his arms crossed. He didn’t look happy to be here.

“Let me guess, Timothy is looking after his nan again?” asked Deuc.  
Charles nodded. “Yes, he is.”  
“Convenient,” muttered Jake. “An Argent joins the pack and he can get away with not being here cause of his nan.”  
“She’s not an Argent,” said Tamika, narrowing her eyes at Jake. “Besides, his nan’s not very well and none of his aunts and uncles want to help out.” It sounded like Timothy needed a break if he was the only one looking after his nan. I wished I knew them well enough to help but I hadn’t even met him yet.

“So what did Liza find out from stalking the guy then?” asked Tasha.  
“Well, he lives in my apartment block.”  
“I thought you lived here,” said Jack with a furrowed brow.  
“Well I’m moving in here, I have an apartment across town and he lives at number 14 there, upstairs,” I explained. I would probably need a bit of help moving some stuff. “He also knows I followed him.”

“I thought you would have been good at it,” said Tasha with a frown.  
“I did say I wasn’t a good hunter,” I said defensively. I didn’t even want to follow the potential murderer anyway.  
“Clearly.”  
“Anyway,” Deuc interjected. “We need to talk to him, I’d prefer it if most of you could be there with me.”

“I can’t do it next weekend,” said Tasha. “Promised a friend I’d drive her to San Francisco and I’m stopping the night there.”  
“I have to work overtime next Saturday,” Charles said quietly. For once, I think everyone could hear him though.  
“I’m free pretty much every weekend for the rest of the month,” said Jack. “What about the weekend after? Me and Tasha are free then.”

“That could work,” said Deuc. “The Saturday or the Sunday?”  
“Sunday, I’m working next two Saturdays in a row,” said Jake.  
“I’m not working on that Sunday, I don’t think,” said Charles and Tamika nodded in agreement.  
“So we’ll go there and confront them on Sunday, which I believe is the 27th,” said Deucalion. He clasped his hands together and tilted his head slightly. “We may need to watch him more, especially if he knows where Liza’s apartment is.”

“Do you need any help moving?” asked Jack.  
“Um, it would be appreciated,” I said awkwardly with a smile.  
“I’ll help,” Jack said with a shrug. “It’ll let us keep an eye on him too. Last thing we want is him trying to break into your apartment.” Tasha didn’t seem to like the offer of help but seemed as though she didn’t care enough to protest in front of everyone.  
“Thank you,” I said with a smile.

“I think that’s everything,” said Deuc as he stood up. “Meet here on Sunday, we need to plan things, we’re not storming in there without a plan.”  
“Got it,” said Jake as he hurried to the front door. Tasha stood and grabbed Jack’s hand and started pulling him towards the door.  
“I’ll call or something to help with the moving,” said Jack.  
“Yeah, okay, thank you,” I said. It was nice of him to offer help. I waved to Charles and Tamika as they left.

It was strange seeing the living room so empty after having so many people gathered there.  
“So… do you think this is going to go well?” I asked as I moved and sat in his lap.  
“I have to hope so.”


	65. Soixante-Cinq

Jack kept his eye on the doors and on the stairs as we moved the last things from my apartment. We moved everything we could, any boxes, the guns left under my bed. Thankfully, Jack dealt with those, I couldn’t even bear looking at them.

At one point, Mark Hampton walked past while Jack was carrying some ornaments I had to the car. They’d belonged to Mom. Mark gave Jack a look as he walked outside to the car and I stood in the doorway to the apartment.  
“Moving out?” asked Mark.  
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “My friend’s helping me with some stuff.”  
“Yeah, tall guy, isn’t he?” said Mark as he smiled at Jack as he walked back in. I nodded again. “Wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of his punches.” Mark gave an awkward laugh before heading outside.

As soon as the doors shut and he was out of sight, Jack and I exchanged a look and we headed into the apartment and shut the door. He pressed his back against the door and I sat on the arm of the couch.

“He hasn’t spoken to you before?” asked Jack with raised eyebrows.  
I shook my head. “No, he hasn’t. He’s the one I followed.”  
“And he saw you,” Jack muttered. “It’s certainly weird.”  
“Yeah,” I said, nodding in agreement. “I have the feeling it’s not a coincidence.”  
“How much stuff’s left?” he asked. I had the feeling we both wanted to leave the apartment building behind and get back to Deuc’s house as quickly as possible.  
“Not much.”

I grabbed a few things that were left and Jack kept an eye out, in case Mark decided to return. I locked my apartment and then we headed out to the car. The trunk was packed with boxes and I could only hope none of my ornaments broke as we drove back.

It didn’t take too long to carry the things from the car to the hallway, where I could move them upstairs or out of the way later on.

“How did things go?” asked Deuc as I shut the door.  
“Mostly okay, Mark decided to talk to us though,” I said. As I passed by, I kissed his cheek and headed to the kitchen to make Jack a cup of coffee.  
“Yeah, pretty suspicious. Said he wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of my punches,” said Jack as he crossed his arms. I started making the coffee, glancing over my shoulder at the two of them.  
“Neither would I,” said Deuc with a chuckle. “But that is strange.”

“And he did know I was following him the other day, I’m sure of it,” I said as I poured the hot water into the mug.  
“I think it’s safe to assume that he did notice,” said Deuc as he nodded. Jack walked over to the kitchen, standing in the doorway between the hallway and the kitchen.

When his coffee was made, Jack uncrossed his arms and held it.  
“It’s probably good that I went with her,” said Jack. “Tash wasn’t happy but she never is lately.”  
“Yes, it’s noticeable,” said Deuc. Jack’s eyes widened.  
“It is?”  
“Yeah,” I said, giving an awkward laugh. “She keeps looking annoyed at you, at one point neither of you seemed to want to be near each other.”

Jack sighed. “She’s upset over… well, over Liza still. She doesn’t want me helping but if us two and her are the fighters and she’s not going to help… well, it’s probably not good to have the Alpha there, is it?” Jack gulped half of his coffee in one go and I was admittedly surprised at it. But I had the feeling another reason Jack helped instead of Deuc was because of the relatively recent blinding that everyone seemed to avoid mentioning around him.  
“No, it wouldn’t be,” said Deuc as he walked over to me and wrapped an arm around my waist. “I’m glad nothing’s happened though.”

Jack drank the rest of the coffee in another large gulp and thanked me for it before handing me the mug and leaving with a promise of seeing them soon.

“I really am glad you are okay,” Deuc said as he pulled me closer to him.  
“So am I,” I said. The interaction with Mark could have gone far worse than it had done. “How have you been while we’ve been out?”  
“I’ve been fine, I was listening to those audiobooks again,” he said. I smiled, glad he liked them. “I don’t think there’s many left that I haven’t listened to now though.”  
“That’s true,” I sighed. Maybe he could learn Braille, I knew there were books in Braille and he might be able to learn it quicker with the enhanced werewolf senses.

“Also…” I said, taking a deep breath and putting on the most innocent look I could manage. I still had the empty mug that Jack had drunk coffee from in my hands. “How do you feel about Halloween decorations?”  
“Halloween decorations?” he repeated slowly. He seemed a little confused. “Why?”  
“Well, I found some under my bed in my apartment and I was thinking that maybe I could put them up or something?” I asked. Hopefully he said yes. “I know we probably won’t get many trick-or-treaters since we’re kind of secluded here but… I don’t know, it’s Halloween soon?”

He chuckled. “Is that your best reason?”  
“Well…” I couldn’t think of anything, not immediately. “Yes?”  
“As long as I’m not going to fall over anything, I don’t see why not,” he said with a smile. I kissed him.  
“Thank you,” I whispered. “You’re the best.” He just chuckled and I kissed him again before moving to put the mug in the kitchen.


	66. Soixante-Six

As per usual, there was a queasy feeling in my stomach. This was my third full moon as a werewolf and I still didn’t have an anchor.

It didn’t matter how much or how often Deuc tried to reassure me that it was normal for me to not have an anchor yet, I still felt like I should have found mine by now. I didn’t even feel like I was close to it. And I was still terrified of shifting, especially when it wasn’t a full moon, when I wasn’t around Deuc.

“You’re thinking too much again.”

Deuc's breath tickled my ear and I leaned away from him, giggling. We were both sitting together on the couch but it would probably end up as cuddling, not that either of us minded.  
“Huh? How do you know?” I asked.  
“Because you have no idea what I’ve just said,” he said. I tried to think of what he had been saying but I had been completely zoned out.  
“Yeah, you’re right,” I sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. I shook my head and shrugged at the same time.  
“It’s nothing we haven’t talked about before,” I muttered before curling into his side again. The TV was on, even though neither of us were really paying attention.  
“We can always talk about it again, I don’t mind.”  
“I don’t want to talk about it again.” I wanted to find my anchor so I didn’t have to be so scared of shifting.

“Liza,” he said softly as his hand snaked around my waist. “It’s alright, you don’t even have to deal with turning properly. I know you don’t want to and I don’t want to put you through it if you really don’t want to.”

I knew of some of the ways other packs dealt with newer werewolves without anchors and I was glad. Being chained up in a basement was a lot less fun when you were trying to escape as a werewolf with insatiable bloodlust. And having strange spiky contraptions put around my head and wrists sounded like something that happened to Jesus. It wasn’t something I wanted to experience and thankfully Deuc had no plans to use those methods on anyone.

He reached out and took my hand.  
“I know I’ve said it before, but I’d rather I help you through this while you’re alive,” he said. I nodded. He had said it before, many times before. And I agreed with him, I’d rather struggle with full moons than have died.  
“I know,” I said quietly. “It’s not that I’m ungrateful… I just…” I couldn’t find the words.  
“I know. It’s bad enough for those that didn’t know we existed, I can’t imagine what it would be like if you were raised to hate us.”

I suppose that did have a part in it, maybe larger than I realised.

My hand, my claws were digging into the flesh of his hand and I jumped, feeling the familiar fear that came with an Alpha’s roar.

He pulled me tighter, his hand left mine and wiped it on his jumper before running his fingers through my hair.  
“That’s it for another month,” he whispered.  
“It’s like a period except this is like, five days shorter,” I said, trying to make myself feel better with humour. Deuc laughed and shook his head slightly, his fingers still running through my hair.

I could easily tell him I loved him.

But I didn’t want it to be now. Not now, on a full moon, while I was shaking and still slightly terrified that I’d turn again even though I knew it wouldn’t affect me until the next full moon. I buried my face in the crook of his neck and closed my eyes.

I love you still felt so easy, as if it could just carelessly slip from my tongue.

But not right now. Maybe tomorrow or the day after but not tonight. At least I was certain that I loved him, it was something that was unquestionable now. I loved Deucalion. I loved him like kids loved snow days, like a worker loved the end of the day and like a moth drawn to light. I had the feeling I was the moth and he was the light but whichever way it was, I loved him.

And still, I had no idea how to say it to him, or when other than right now. And while I had the feeling that I was thinking about this too much, I just let him hold me in his arms, and kiss my forehead as his fingers ran though my hair.


	67. Soixante-Sept

Almost everyone in the room was nervous. I could feel it, it was almost overwhelming. Out of everyone, only Deuc and Jack seemed fine. But Deuc could hide his emotions, he had hidden his anger before, it wouldn't have surprised me if he was feeling nervous or anxious.

“So what's going to happen?” asked Charles. Everyone but Timothy was here, as per usual.  
“I want to try talking first,” said Deuc. It was partly him and partly me. I didn’t want him to outright murder the man.  
“Do you think it’ll work?” asked Tasha.  
Deuc shrugged. “I don’t know, but it has to be worth trying.”  
“He’s killed three people,” said Tamika. “I don’t think he’s going to listen.”  
“We don’t know for certain that it’s him,” said Jack. “Even if he is suspicious and the most likely suspect.”

“Liza is going to stay here, I can’t risk taking her in case he thinks she’s still a hunter and I can’t risk her shifting and losing control,” he said. While Deuc could do his Alpha roar to turn me human, it would likely just be inconvenient. And I would be a weak link. “If something goes wrong, Charles and Tamika will get out first. They’re the least able to fight. We get them out first and then we don’t have to worry about watching out for them.”

I wondered if Charles and Tamika would be offended or if they were alright because they knew they weren’t great fighters. Charles seemed okay with it but Charles was a rather nervous person anyway.

“I’m hoping he won’t try and fight but if he does attack one of us, don’t try to negotiate or talk him out of it. He’s most likely a wendigo if anything. If he was an Alpha, he’d have a pack.”  
“Why can't he be another Alpha?” asked Jake.  
“Because wendigos are stronger than us at the best of times when we have a pack, if he didn’t have a pack, he’d never be able to kill three wendigos,” Deuc said. It sounded like he had thought about this a lot.

“How are we getting in?” asked Tasha. It was a good question to ask.  
“Deuc has my keys,” I said. He had promised he wouldn’t lose them, otherwise I could be linked to the murder, if a murder did happen. While I hoped it didn’t, I was expecting it to happen anyway. “And should you need to, you can go into my apartment, there’s not much in there but it might be helpful. Just try not to make it look like I’m a murderer.”  
“You kind of are,” Tasha pointed out.  
“I haven’t killed anyone,” I said. While I had been a hunter, I had never killed anyone, even when I was supposed to.

“Anyway,” Deuc interjected. “We are going to try negotiations, if they fail, we are unfortunately going to have to resort to killing them. If something goes wrong, we get Charles and Tamika out first and then we fight. Don’t try negotiating with them afterwards.” Deuc looked in the direction of Jake who just rolled his eyes. “We fight to kill them afterwards, do you understand?”

“Yes,” said Jack and Tasha at almost the exact same time. Charles gave a nod and Tamika nodded as she confirmed that she understood what was happening.  
“Jake, you always try to negotiate, do you understand that you can’t afford to try to talk with them this time?” Deucalion asked, looking directly at Jake. I couldn’t tell if he could see Jake with the strange vision being an Alpha gave him or if he was just looking in Jake’s general direction but Jake cleared his throat and nodded.  
“I understand.”

“Good. Liza, you’re okay with staying here?” I nodded. We had talked about it before the meeting. I knew I would be a risk.  
“Yeah, I’m good,” I said.  
Deuc smiled. “If something goes wrong, we either reconvene in her apartment, or we try to get here.” Pretty much everyone nodded. It seemed as though they understood and that everyone was ready.

Deuc stood and kissed my cheek.  
“We’ll be back soon.”  
“I know,” I said, smiling as I kissed his lips. “Stay safe.”  
“I will,” he promised.

It didn’t take too long for them to get ready. The house felt empty as they all left together. Sighing, I sat down on the sofa and curled up into a ball. Hopefully, they would stay safe.


	68. Soixante-Huit

Every tick of the clock seemed to pass painfully slowly and with every tick, the loneliness seemed to seep in.

While waiting, I paced around, drank coffee, paced around some more. I changed into pajamas before pacing around some more. Patience was not one of my virtues.

When the door finally opened, I eagerly headed to it. But the sight was not what I expected. In front was me was Jack, who was holding up a very bloody Deucalion. Before I could even say a word, Jack moved from supporting Deucalion and rushed out back to his car.  
“I have to go and help Tasha,” he said as he got inside. The car door shut and he drove away, into the darkness.

I stared a t Deuc. He was hurt, and that was painful, but I had no idea what to do.  
“Um, what do I do?” I asked as he staggered inside. I rushed to shut the door and stop the cold air from freezing the house. Staring at his ripped shirt, I could see a cut between a tear in the fabric.  
“I need to get upstairs,” he said through gritted teeth. His hand clutched a wound on his side and he headed to the stairs.

What had happened to them?

Not sure of what else to do, I let the only hunter instincts I had kick in. I headed to the kitchen and grabbed a few clean hand towels and washed my hands with soap. I filled the bowl with clean, soapy waters and then took deep breaths. It would be fine. Deuc would be fine. It was just like when Chris came back injured, I just needed to clean away the dirt, prevent bleeding and then clean the wounds.

But Deucalion’s wounds should have healed.

He was an Alpha werewolf, his wounds should have healed.

By the time I had returned to the hallway with the bowl in hand and the towels draped over my forearm, there was the ripped remains of Deuc’s blood-soaked shirt on the floor. Sighing, I followed him upstairs, careful not to spill any of the water.

Hearing him curse, I headed into the bedroom. He sat on the edge of the bed and without his shirt, I could see the full extent of some of his injuries. There was a large gash across his chest, a smaller cut across his shoulder blade and a bite mark above his left hip. That was where he had been clutching earlier.

“What happened?” I asked quietly as I walked over. He looked over to me, his eyes glowing red.  
“It was three wendigos, not one,” he said and that explained a lot. We had thought it was just Mark but there had been two others helping him. They would easily match or overpower a pack of werewolves.  
“You were ambushed.”  
He nodded. “They were trying to kill the family for buying the business they worked at and for putting them out of a job,” he explained. I nodded as I set the bowl on the floor and wet part of a towel.  
“Why isn’t it healing?” I asked as I started wiping away the blood. The shoulder cut was almost healed and the large gash was significantly smaller. As I wiped the mark on his hip, Deuc growled. Something was lodged in his flesh. Fangs.  
“It has been,” he said. He sounded so defeated and my heart ached.

“Are they dead?” I asked as I stared at the multiple wendigo fangs stuck in him. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know how they had got there.  
“Yes.” His eyes were still glowing as he looked at me. I looked at the wound and then into his eyes.  
“I don’t know how to get them out,” I told him. If I had tweezers, I could probably pull them out but I didn’t know where Deuc would keep tweezers. Maybe a bathroom? “Do you have any tw-”  
“Liza,” he growled as he grabbed my wrist a little too tightly. I stared at the hand and saw the claws on the ends of my fingertips.  
“That works too, I guess.”

Once I had pulled the fangs free, I set them aside. Briar had wanted them. The bite wounds started to heal. The shoulder cut had already healed and the one across his chest was almost gone. It didn’t take too long to wipe away the remaining blood.

“Is everyone else alright?” I asked as I sat next to him on the edge of the bed.  
“Yes, Charles and Tamika ran for it when we realised. Tasha got it the worst out of us all, I think,” he said. If Tasha had been worse than Deuc, I didn’t want to know what injuries she had gotten. Even though I didn’t like her, I didn’t want her to get hurt. “This is the second ambush.”  
“That isn’t your fault,” I said as I shook my head.  
“I couldn’t fight them, Liza,” he whispered. “We were all weaker, I couldn’t see them. I felt helpless and weak.”

I didn’t want to argue with him but he had a point. There were less people in his pack which made him weaker, even if he had somehow managed to absorb Marco and Becca’s powers. And being blind didn't help him at all.

“Maybe we should sleep,” I suggested. “We can check on the others in the morning.” Hesitantly, he nodded and shuffled back before lying down.  
“You’re sleeping here with me, right?”  
“Yeah,” I said, nodding. “I’ll just go empty the bowl and put it somewhere other than the floor.”

Once the bowl was emptied and put in the dishwasher and the towels were put in the utility room, I headed back upstairs to the bedroom and lay next to him.  
“You did as well as you could,” I said in an attempt to comfort him. I couldn’t tell if it was working or not. After kissing his cheek, I snuggled closer to him. The wounds were still healing so I was careful not to knock them.

“It still wasn’t enough.”  
“It was enough, it was more than enough. You protected Charles and Tamika, the wendigos are dead and they can’t cause any more trouble,” I said firmly. I couldn’t let him blame himself for it when he had done everything he could. Deuc closed his eyes and sighed. “You did well, very well. Please don’t blame yourself.” I intertwined my fingers with him and closed my eyes.


	69. Soixante-Neuf

It wasn't morning. Even though the curtains were closed, I had the feeling it wasn't near sunrise. At first, I had thought it was. It wasn't unusual for Deuc to be out of bed before me but the room didn't seem bright enough.

Deuc came back into the room, still shirtless though he had removed the blood stained trousers he had been wearing. He sat on the edge of the bed.

“Are you going to lie down?” I asked after a while. It seemed like he was thinking. “What's wrong?”  
“We shouldn't have been ambushed.”  
“You couldn't help that, everyone thought it was just Mark,” I said as I leaned over and reached for his hand, making sure I stayed under the duvet. It would come with me if it needed to.  
“It was something I should have prepared for, this is the second ambush I should have guessed or known about and prepared for.”

“You couldn’t have known, Deuc,” I insisted. “Please, get back in bed at least. It’s not even close to morning.” He seemed hesitant but he did return to lying under the duvet. I held his hand again, snuggled in close.  
“I can’t sleep,” he said. “I keep waking up.” I closed my eyes, I wasn’t sure how to help him with that.

“Any reason in particular?” I asked.  
“Other than the events of yesterday?”  
“Yes,” I said. Yesterday probably brought up what happened in the summer. “You can talk about anything you want to talk about.” He sighed. And for a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to say anything.

“I feel… helpless. I shouldn’t feel like this, I’m an Alpha of a werewolf pack. My injuries heal, I do have a strange sort of sight and yet… I seem to keep getting injured when I think I’m doing what is right.” I let him continue talking. “I tried to fix things and that resulted in pack members dying and I’m blind. I try to deal with this and Tasha and Jake and I… we almost died. Tasha was worse than I was.”

“You can’t blame yourself for what those wendigos did.”  
“They knew most of us were out of town, that’s why they started killing. And I couldn’t even deal with it properly, Liza. Things haven’t been this bad since my uncle was the Alpha. And that was almost a decade ago.” I could hear the defeat and disappointment in his voice. I opened my eyes and looked up at him. I’d never seen him in such despair.  
“You still managed to deal with it,” I said, trying to remind him that they had done what they had meant to without any of the pack dying.  
“Not last time, last time Gerard killed some of us, and I killed two of my own.”  
“In self defence,” I said. Deucalion said nothing.

“Deuc?” I asked. He wasn’t asleep, I could hear his heart beating quickly in his chest, even though I was only lying next to him.  
“I did take their power,” he said. “I felt it when I killed them. I became stronger, even with the lost strength coming with the pack being smaller. And that still wasn’t enough.”  
“You said yourself, one wendigo is as strong as an Alpha,” I said. I wasn’t sure what else I could say. “And you and Jack and Tasha and Jake managed to kill three of them. They can’t hurt or murder anyone else now.”

“And if Gerard Argent comes after us? What then?” he asked. “What happens then, Liza? Because next time he won’t just kill the pack members and blind someone, he’ll cause something much bigger and much worse and we can’t begin to prepare for that, not with how I am.”

“You learning to use that white cane is just the beginning of preparations. Someone will notice if there’s hunters in town. Charles is at a law firm, Jack is from a notorious criminal family. Someone is bound to notice new people and mention it, if it does ever happen,” I said. Part of me was trying to be optimistic, hoping that something more large scale between hunters and werewolves wouldn’t happen. But, knowing Gerard, it probably would eventually happen. “And that’s if he even tries to bother, he might not. He might bother one of the other packs or he might move to a different part of the country. Hell, he might get in a car accident, he’s a horrendous driver, there’s a reason me and Chris had our own cars and drove ourselves whenever possible.”

Deuc chuckled. “I almost hope something as mundane as that kills him.”  
“And he can’t ambush anyone anymore. I hate that he did it to you but now a lot of people know, Talia, Ennis, Kali, their own packs. Any other werewolves they’ve talked to probably know that Gerard has ambushed you under the guise of a peace treaty so now no one will ever trust him or risk something like that.” I rolled onto my side and put my hand on his cheek, turning his head so he was facing me. “Even if he tried it again, it would never work. No one else can go through what happened to your and your pack.

“Besides, if none of that had happened, I’d still be a hunter and would have never known you,” I said. I kissed him and he kissed back. “And I’m glad I’m here, with you as my boyfriend. I’ve realised that some beliefs I had were completely wrong and can finally live a life that I want.”

“You almost died,” he whispered. “Because we went on a date.”  
“But I didn’t and it wasn’t because of our date, it was because Gerard is a fucking bastard who decided to shott his own daughter with a crossbow,” I said. I could hear the bitterness and venom in my own words and Deuc smiled slightly at me. I let out a laugh before saying, “At least now I can write some near death experiences pretty well.”

“That is not what you should take from that,” he said seriously with a shake of his head.  
“What? I’d rather be scared of being alone and good at writing near death experiences than deal with nightmares and things,” I said. My writing had become a way to deal with the bizarre emotions and experiences in a way I could control.  
“You were good at writing anyway.”  
I smiled. “Thank you, mon cheri.”

I snuggled in even closer to him and he didn’t seem to mind. His heartbeat was slowly down though, and I was fairly sure that was a good sign.  
“While I wish we had none of the horrible consequences, life doesn’t really work like that.”  
“No, it doesn’t,” Deuc agreed.  
“But that doesn’t stop up from remembering the good that’s come out of it as well. It doesn’t get rid of the bad but it might just make it more bearable.”

“You make everything a lot more bearable,” he said with a chuckle. He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Thank you, my love, for letting me talk.”  
“It’s the least I can do. But I am ready to fall asleep again, good night, Deuc.”  
“I think it’s technically ‘good morning’,” he said and I smiled.  
“Shush,” I said with a slight shrug. Sleep was calling me to unconsciousness and whatever dreams that might come with it. “Just… please try to sleep.”  
“I will.”


	70. Soixante-Dix

Deucalion seemed different. He was quieter than usual and it worried me. It didn’t seem to matter how much or how often I tried to comfort him or reminded him that he had done as well as he could, it didn’t seem to be enough. I had even contemplated calling Ms. Morell to see if she could ease his mind.

“Deuc, I’m going to buy some Halloween decorations,” I said. The few that I had were a bit pathetic looking now but I had salvaged what I could from the tangled mess of fake spider webbing. “Do you want to come with me?” Hesitantly, he nodded.

The drive to the supermarket didn’t take too long, the roads were relatively quiet. As we walked around, hand in hand, I suddenly wished I had something to put everything in.  
“Deuc, there’s vampire fangs,” I said, looking at the plastic fangs. “I should get them.”  
“You’re a werewolf,” he whispered. “Why are you going to be a vampire?”  
“Why not? Maybe you can be a werewolf but I can’t shift and control that,” I said as I picked them up. He just laughed and shook his head a little. “Oh come on, it’s fun for me and you don’t even have to look at me being stupid in a costume.”

He chuckled as I put them back.  
“If you want to because it’s fun, then do it,” he said.  
“Really?”  
Deuc nodded. “Sure. Why not do it if it’s fun?”  
I smiled. “Well, I could always consider being a sexy vampire,” I said and he shook his head again.  
“I’m not going to complain if you do,” he said as I held onto the fangs.

“I don’t think you would,” I said, laughing a little as we walked along the aisle. Even if he couldn’t see the costume, he wouldn’t need to. “But… what do you think of some skeleton decorations?”  
“I’ll trust your judgement, I’ve never been one for decorating for Halloween,” he said.  
“Well, I think this skeleton will look wonderful in the front yard,” I said as I tucked it under my arm.

“Your enthusiasm is infectious, I think,” he muttered and I laughed.  
“Good. Now do we get spiders? I’m not getting the web, they are far too annoying for me to deal with,” I said. That spider webbing had irritated me so much I was not willing to go through it again.  
“Spiders?” he asked.  
“Yeah, spiders. I could stick one on the front door,” I said, grinning as I thought of the idea.  
“Sure, why not?” he said and I smiled. My Halloween spirit did seem to make him a little less grumpy about it.

Once we had paid, I insisted on paying for at least half since the decorations were my idea even though Deuc said he didn’t mind paying for them. We drove back home and I was glad to sit down on the sofa.

“You’re not going to decorate the house with those decorations?” he asked, eyebrows raised as he sat down next to me.  
“I will,” I said. “In like, half an hour or so.”  
He chuckled. “I’ll have to try and see the results.”  
“You’re going to shift just to see the spooky decorations?” I asked, a grin spreading across his face.  
“It’s not going to hurt anything.”

I hummed. “True. It's just that I’ll have to put a bit more effort in than I was planning to.”  
“How much effort were you planning on putting in?”  
“Eh,” I said with a shrug. I wasn’t sure myself.

After putting up the Halloween decorations, I walked with Deuc, showing my very proud set up of a posed skeleton looking scared at a fake spider. He laughed.  
“You know, this just proves that you’re adorable.”  
“Adorable?” I repeated, raising my eyebrows. “I wouldn’t call it that… but okay.”  
“What would you call it?” he asked, looking at me and waiting for my answer.  
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Me having nothing better to do?” He chuckled and kissed my cheek.  
“I feel like that proves my point.”  
“No, I don’t think it does,” I said, shaking my head.

“When are you going to be a vampire then?”  
“Not today, it’s not Halloween yet,” I said. “You’ll have to wait until Thursday.”  
“What day is it today?” he asked.  
“Tuesday?” How did he not know what day it was?  
“I can’t exactly look at a calendar, can I?” he said drily and I nodded, he had a point.

“Well, I’m dressing up Thursday, it’s not Halloween yet,” I said. “And if you need to know what day it is and you don’t know, you can ask.”  
“Thank you.” He smiled and I gave him a quick kiss.  
“I’m tired, I might go to be early,” I said. I wasn’t sure why I was so tired.  
“Sleep well then.”  
“And you, whenever you decide to join me.”


End file.
